Kayleighbug Books

Added Today: Philip Wylie, Leigh Brackett, Samuel R. Delaney, Larry Niven, Ron Goulart & more...

2011-10-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

More great vintage-ish SF added to the site today - including this copy of Dell's Binary Star #3 - Dell's version of an Ace Double....

Binary Star #3: Dr. Scofflaw / Outerworld by Ron Goulart and Isidore Haiblum - Two complete novels in one volume:

Dr. Scofflaw by Ron Goulart: The master criminal was spread all over the place--an arm here, a leg there--and Silvera was obsessed with reassembling Scofflaw. After all, a scattered collection of spare parts can't pay off a ten-grand debt!

Outerworld by Isidore Haiblum: They framed Dunjer as professionally as if he'd been a Picasso original--the dead gang boss, the looted safe--and the evidence that could clear him was long gone, into the enemy-states of the Outerworld.

Flash Gordon by Arthur Byron Cover - MING THE MERCILESS! He rules the planet Mongo with cold terror--and if he has his Imperial way, will conquer the entire universe! But first the King of Mongo must destroy Flash Gordon, the fair-haired earthling and Superbowl Star, destined to challenge his sinister mental forces... Together with Doctor Zarkov and the beautiful Dale Arden, Flash is sent hurtling through interstellar space to the Towers of Mingo City, the heartless armies of the all-seeing secret police, and the deadly creatures and half-human beings lurking in Ming's domains. There, the space hero has a triple task: survive Ming's onslaught, free his own friends, and save--billions of light-years away--the planet Earth!

When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer - A runaway planet hurtles toward the earth. As it draws near, massive tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions wrack our planet, devastating continents, drowning cities, and wiping out millions. In central North America, a team of scientists race to build a spacecraft powerful enough to escape the doomed earth. Their greatest threat, they soon discover, comes not from the skies but from other humans. A crackling plot and sizzling, cataclysmic vision have made When Worlds Collide one of the most popular and influential end-of-the-world novels of all time.

Khi to Freedom by Ardath Mayhar - For Hale Enbo, servitude promised freedom! He loved his life as planetary scout, indentured to the alien Ginli, traveling throughout the universe, finding and befriending the myriads of intelligent life forms. Until he discovered what his masters were really after. Until he found one of his new friends staked out on the Ginli's vivisection table...

The Light Bearer by Sam Nicholson - Harems and treasure palaces, pirate hordes and gilded barges...the splendors of Mus-al-ram were typical of a Bronze Age world, with one slight difference: a spaceship hovered above its clouds, observing, planning... Prince Zeid, whose subjects called him Light-Bearer, lusted after the Space Givers'knowledge. Prince Rustard lusted after the moonship's jewels and gold. And then there was the pirate girl, Coral Bud, who lusted after the Light-Bearer himself!

The Practice Effect by David Brin - Dennis Nuel is a physicist who, during his research, develops a machine that allows him to explore alternate realities, each of which sport some very strange scientific properties.

The Neutral Stars by Dan Morgan and John Kippax - United Earth Government couldn't get past the vast appropriations needed to commandeer an entire planet-necessary to experiment with the titanic forces that would be unleashed while doing research on a warp-drive. And meanwhile, Venturer Twelve and her sister ships continued to protect Earth Sector as best they could, knowing aliens must already have the drive. But their worst enemy was right here on Earth.

The Hounds of Skath by Leigh Brackett - Leigh Brackett's unforgettable science-fantasy hero of The Secret of Sinharat and The Ginger Star cuts a red swath across the brutal planet Skaith Having killed the king-dog Flay in his quest to save an old friend and mentor, Stark now wanders the Worldheart in the company of nine ferocious canines that respond to his every command. Ruling the hounds of Skaith means tapping into the savagery of Stark's own mysterious past, and even a moment's hesitation could turn the pack against him!

The Descent of Anansi by Larry Niven and Stephen Barnes - It's the American Revolution all over again. But this time it's a ragtag band of space colonists vs. the United States. And the fate of the world hangs by a thread--200 miles above the earth.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delaney - The story of a truly galactic civilization with over 6,000 inhabited worlds.

Face of the Enemy by Richard Fawkes - The Interstellar Defense League is claiming rights to a string of rich colonies, and the Pan-Stellar Combine and the Mercantile Union are squabbling over wormhole transit routes. Remor is bent on eradicating all trace of humankind from space. In a pitched galaxy-wide battle for survival, the crucial conflict may come on an out-of-the-way jungle planet called Chugen.

Flameweaver by Margaret Ball - After her expulsion from the priesthood, Tamai is sent to obtain fabled rifles for her people and comes under the protection of a British Officer's Lady. Becoming friends, Tamai and Louisa Westbrook head to Tamai's homeland, Gandhara, where Louisa becomes a full-fledged priestess gifted with occult powers unseen in Gandhara since the glory days.

PLUS: Just cataloged a beautiful copy of the Special Illustrated Edition of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - The murder of an elderly curator at the Louvre soon entangles Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon in a race against time to decipher a labyrinthine puzzle before an ancient secret--and an explosive historical truth--are lost forever.

Special illustrated edition is packed with over 160 images of artwork, symbols, architecture and historic locations associated with the text.

First Trailer released for Dr. Seuss's THE LORAX

2011-10-28T08:16:00.002-04:00

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/thelorax/

Incredible animation, great cast, and what seems to be a creatively fleshed-out back-story to bring it up to movie length.

I'm definitely eager to see this. The Lorax has always been one of my favorite Seuss stories.

Cast includes:

Danny DeVito
Betty White
Zac Efron
Taylor Swift
Willow Smith
Ed Helms

And the bestselling Science Fiction series of all time? .....

2011-10-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

Perry Rhodan!

In the most part due to the German pulp magazine Perry Rhodans, this series has sold more than 1 Billion copies worldwide. The weekly serial began in 1961 and is still issuing weekly today in Germany.

Ace Books and Forest J. Ackerman published some 117 translated issues in novel format during the 1970s but, primarily due to marketing difficulties, the series has never been as popular here as it is overseas.

Several years ago kept most all of the series in stock at all times, letting that stock lapse without replacement about 8 years ago. Those copies I had have since sold out and I hadn't seen any for some time - until excavating a box of vintage SF&F from one of our storage areas this morning. Inside, among some other gems of 60s and 70s SF&F, was 1 1/2 dozen or so Perry Rhodans.

Unfortunately, many of them had some damage - likely why I never shelved them for sale years ago. Several are moisture-stained - a flaw that will typically consign a book to my woodstove during the winter. The scarcity of the long out-of-print Rhodans has saved these few though. Most of these are reading copies.. not for display - and are priced accordingly.

Perry Rhodans available today:

#13: The Immortal Unknown
#28: The Plague of Oblivion
#50: Attack From The Unseen
#57: A Touch of Eternity
#59: Interlude on Siliko 5
#70 Thora's Sacrifice
#73: Spaceship of Ancestors
#79: The Sleepers
#96: Horn: Green
#101: Blockade: Lepso

More vintage SF&F added today....

2011-10-27T12:20:00.000-04:00

Second batch today of vintage science fiction and fantasy.. including a couple scarce titles.

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis - The first novel in C.S. Lewis's classic sci-fi trilogy which tells the adventure of Dr Ransom who was kidnapped and transported to another planet. Dr Ransom is a Cambridge academic who is captured whilst on a walking tour and forced into a spaceship by two men. With them he flies to Malacandra (Mars) . There he escapes his captors and discovers an amazing range of rational creatures on the planet, and in addition, spiritual creatures. Through the story of the Malacandrans, spiritual truths concerning the planet Earth are uncovered. Lewis tells the tale with a wealth of imagination and sense of adventure, drawing out the realities of good and evil, God and the devil from the fantasy.

Tide by Zach Hughes - An experiment in radiation treatment of fish produces mutations in the microscopic dino-flagellates the fish feed on. The result in the fish is horrifyingly abnormal aggressiveness - toward other fish and even against man.

Mindmix by Leo P. Kelley - A strange virus was creeping slowly over the earth like a monster, wiping out millions of lives. The finest scientific minds. The greatest geniuses of art and literature. The rich. The poor. All were doomed.

The Towers of Melnon [Richard Blade #15] by Jeffrey Lord - After fourteen successive trips to Dimension X, Blade is still the most nearly perfect physical and mental specimen on planet Earth. But on this, his fifteenth journey, all his faculties as both a warrior and a man are stretched to their outermost limits.

Other Richard Blade titles in stock:
#6: Monster of the Maze
#7: Pearl of Patmos
#10: The Ice Dragon
#13: The Golden Steed
#17: The Mountains of Brega
#24: The Dragons of Englor

The Nets of Space by Emil Petaja - The Centaur expedition to the far stars had vanished - no trace, no clue. But, back on Earth, Centaur project worker Don Quick, under an overdose of time-space gas, had strange dreams - dreams of a monstrous race of beings that spread their nets across the galactic wastes, and lovingly prepared and ate their catch!

It was too terrible to believe - but then one weak signal came through from space: "The Nets - The Nets!"

Seven Trips Through Time and Space edited by Groff Conklin - an awesome anthology of SF from the masters containing: "Flatlander" by Larry Niven; "The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal" by Cordwainer Smith; "Overproof" by Jonathan Blake Mackenzie; "Poor Planet" by J. T. McIntosh; "Shamar's War" by Kris Neville; "The Tactful Saboteur" by Frank Herbert; and "Ministry of Disturbance" by H. Beam Piper.

Beachhead Planet by Robert Moore Williams - From a far galaxy the Narks had come, hungering for the tempting green planet called Earth. First they invaded the mind of the world's greatest scientist, Erasmus Brockner. Then they had him build them an impregnable fortress deep in the Nevada mountains. From this lair went out their human slaves, fanning out like a contagion across the globe. The Narks were ready for the final step in their monstrous design, when a man named Valthor stumbled onto the truth-and swore to defeat them or die...

Ability Quotient by Mack Reynolds - When the Asian Wars were over Major Bert Alshuler had few prospects, until Mid-West University asked him to take part in an "educational experiment" that would test the effect of certain drugs on his I.Q.

The project was top secret, but it looked like an easy way to make money and get an education, so Bert saw no reason to worry - until his girlfriend was kidnapped...and someone tried to kill him.

And then he discovered just what the drugs were doing to him - he was more than an educational experiment...HE WAS THE FIRST MAN OF THE NEW HUMAN RACE.

The Journey of Joenes by Robert Sheckley - Joenes set out on his great Journey, venturing to the legendary land of America. There he encountered mysteries of yore, beings of legend: for he saw New York, the great city of the walking dead; he stood before the dreaded warlocks of the Congressional Committee and was given justice by the computer priests of the Sperry Oracle; he even witnessed the High Security measures of the Octagon, until at last he discovered the secret at the center of its forbidden maze.

Robert Sheckley has always been one of my favorite old-school SF authors. Spider Robinson said once "I don't know of anyone else in SF who has written so many really classic stories... wittier than Pohl, blacker than Lenny Bruce, subtler and more bent than the Firesigns and Monty Python put together."

This particular title has been out of print for some time and is rather scarce in any condition. This copy is in good condition but priced low... grab it before it's gone!

Acquisitions: Vintage Science Fiction & Fantasy Paperbacks

2011-10-27T10:24:00.000-04:00

For every book we have listed for sale on our website, we have 10 more still waiting to be cataloged. Usually my methodology is to grab the next box at hand and start cataloging them, whatever they may be. Once in a while, though, I get the urge to find something specific - so this morning, I dug around in one of the storage areas until I found a case of vintage SF&F.

The Island Snatchers by George H. Smith - DAW Collector's #298; Flying machines had not yet been invented on Earth's dimensional twin, Annwn. So Dylan McBride thought it would be a good idea, even if a bit on the crackpot side from the viewpoint of that world's somewhat backward Victorian viewpoint. But when Dylan and his witch wife Clarinda tried out the machine by flying to Hibernia to attend a wild Irish wedding, they came a-cropper. For the Emerald Isle was not where it was supposed to be. Instead, it was drifting rapidly westward under some strange power.

The Star-Crowned Kings by Robert Chilson - DAW Collector's #161. Race Warden was his name and he was a human being trying to live peacefully in his allotted niche on the colony world Mavia...until the day he moved a stone slab by mental projection. Until that moment, he had regarded himself as a simple pawn on the vast social board. But it raised him to a higher status at once - possibly a castle or bishop or knight. The kings of the board, they who ruled the human cosmos, had the telkinetic-telepathic power. They had crowned themselves with the stars and all the rest of humanity were theirs to move or sacrifice as they wished.

But a maverick mentalist - even one like Race who did not even know the rules of their games nor the extent of his place - was not to be tolerated. He had to be removed from the board before he broke up their cozy zodiac.

Rod Serling's Other Worlds - An anthology edited by Rod Serling and containing: They by Robert A. Heinlein; Fifteen Miles by Ben Bova; Dolphin's Way by Gordon R. Dickson; The Royal Opera House by Carl Jacobi; Special Aptitude by Theodore Sturgeon; The Underdweller by William F. Nolan; I'm in Marsport without Hilda by Isaac Asimov; A Nice Shady Place by Dennis Etchison; Construction Shack by Clifford D. Simak; A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury; The Visible Man by Gardner R. Dozois; Mister Magister by Thomas F. Monteleone; What Johnny Did on His Summer Vacation by Joe Haldeman and Robert Thurston; and Little Old Mis Macbeth by Fritz Leiber.

King of the World's Edge by H. Warner Munn - They were a lonely half-starved band of adventurers who had been cast out of their homeland by hordes of invading marauders - and they came to an unknown world as strange, as fantastic, as wonder-packed as the legendary Atlantis.

Berserker Worlds by Fred Saberhagen - A promotional book printed for Waldenbook's Otherworlds Club members.

Contains the short stories: Masque of the Red Shift; In the Temple of Mars; Brother Berserker; Smasher.

The Book of Lost Tales by J. R. R. Tolkien - The Book of Lost Tales stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor, for the Tales were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called The Simarillion. Complete with commentary and notes.

Tain by Gregory Frost - TAIN and its sequel, REMSCELA, comprise the retelling of the Irish epic Tain Bo Cuailnge--the stories of Cu Chulainn, the hero of Ulster who at the age of 18 single-handedly defended his people against the invading army of the sorcerous queen Maeve.

The Outer Space Connection by Alan & Sally Landsburg - Actually, non-fiction, not science fiction. This book on UFOs presents evidence and makes predictions - including the prediction that aliens will return to the Earth on December 24th, 2011.

many more on tap for later today - Vintage SF from Mack Reynolds, Robert Sheckley, Emil Petaja, Jeffrey Lord, C. S. Lewis, Leo P. Kelley and more including a large batch of Perry Rhodan paperbacks....

Barnes & Noble pulls DC Graphics Novels over Kindle Fire deal

2011-10-11T15:31:00.000-04:00

Amazon.com's recent launch of the Kindle Fire put them back in the ball game for tablet devices. While the Android-powered Fire isn't in the same league with the iPad in terms of design and power, it's rock-solid integration with Amazon's Kindle platform gives it a strong leg up in the ereader market - at a price-point that beats Barnes & Noble's Nook device.

Amazon, like B&N before them, has been pushing the benefits of a full-color reader over a b&w e-ink display - and selling the device at a loss to pull in those customers. To sweeten the pot, Amazon recently announced an exclusive deal with DC Comics for large backlist of digital graphic novels to be available only on the Kindle. While the LA Times reports that the deal is more of a "Kindle First" 4-month exclusive, the move was more than enough to invite retribution from Barnes & Noble.

B&N's response was to order their brick-and-mortar stores to pull the physical copies from their stores. B&N has maintained a strong position in the wake of previous Amazon or Walmart-exclusive deals to protest the move. If a publisher intends to do any type of business with Barnes & Noble, they are told that if they want B&N to carry their titles, the publisher must make all formats available to B&N that are available anywhere else. Thus, publishers pushing Kindle-only digital versions won't find a home on B&N shelves for their print copies.

Even Amazon has previously buckled on this issue - promising that titles from their own publishing imprints will be available in Nook format as well as Kindle in order to get those titles carried in B&N stores. DC either wasn't paying attention or thought the deal to sweet to pass up but B&N refused to look the other way.

Amanda Hocking inks deal for Hollowland graphic novels

2011-10-11T13:20:00.000-04:00

Amanda Hocking has inked a deal (for an undisclosed amount) with Dynamite Entertainment to produce a graphic novel adaptation of her popular Hollowland series.

Hocking - well known among YA readers and self-publishing advocates for her astounding climb to success with her self-published Kindle YA novels and subsequent $2mil deal with St. Martin's Press - reported that she loves the idea - and the work that Dynamite is producing, saying "They do the kind of things and have the kind of image I like."

Dynamite produces a range of quality graphic novels - both original and licensed - including a beautiful adaptation of Burroughs' Barsoom series, adaptations of Jordan's The Wheel of Time, SyFy Channel's Warehouse 13, and more.

Amazon launches Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Imprint

2011-10-11T12:20:00.000-04:00

Amazon.com has launched another imprint - this time for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. The new imprint is called 47North and will be publishing both new SF&F and reprinting out-of-print titles from core genre authors as well.

Signed on initially to the imprint are notables such as Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Dave Duncan, Chris Roberson, and B. V. Larson.

The move touches off another outcry from publishers and indie booksellers alike at Amazon's approach to profiting from both sides of the book sale but, with millions behind them, Amazon can offer larger advances and has the dominate market position to push the sales numbers high enough to justify it. Some authors have been hesitant about getting in bed with the retail giant but often the bottom line of better sales and higher royalties are making the decision for them.. they can't afford to say no.

On the flip side, Amazon does distribute the book through standard trade channels and distributors - at standard discounts - allowing indies and brick & mortar chains alike to stock and sell the book as if it were published by any traditional publisher.

With indies struggling against Amazon's dominant market position though, it hurts to deliberately put more money in their pockets - even when the sale benefits the B&M store. Amazon's marketing force is arranging book signings and author tours like any other publisher as well. Kayleighbug, like hundreds of indies before us, will now virtually be forced to stock Amazon's 47North titles - or risk sending even more business to Amazon if we don't carry the books in our specialty.

08/09/11 - This Week's New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

2011-08-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

The big release news this week is Lev Grossman's follow-up to the critically acclaimed Magicians. The rest of the list is light on titles but features some strong young adult releases.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman - The Magicians was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature. Now Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges.

Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them.

The Magician King is a grand voyage into the dark, glittering heart of magic, an epic quest for the Harry Potter generation. It also introduces a powerful new voice, that of Julia, whose angry genius is thrilling. Once again Grossman proves that he is the modern heir to C.S. Lewis, and the cutting edge of literary fantasy.

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Ascension by Christie Golden - As Luke and Ben Skywalker pursue the formidable dark-side being Abeloth, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is about to be sundered by an even greater power—which will thrust one Dark Lord into mortal conflict with his own flesh-and-blood.

On Coruscant, a political vacuum has left tensions at the boiling point, with factions racing to claim control of the Galactic Alliance. Suddenly surrounded by hidden agendas, treacherous conspiracies, and covert Sith agents, the Jedi Order must struggle to keep the GA government from collapsing into anarchy.

The Jedi are committed to maintaining peace and ensuring just rule, but even they are not prepared to take on the combined threats of Sith power, a deposed dictator bent on galaxywide vengeance, and an entity of pure cunning and profound evil hungry to become a god.

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay - Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

Machine Man by Max Barry - Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It's not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts.

Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon.

A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man's quest for ultimate self-improvement.

Brain Jack by Brian Falkner - In a dystopian near-future, neuro-headsets have replaced computer keyboards. Just slip on a headset, and it's the Internet at the speed of thought. For teen hacker Sam Wilson, a headset is a must. But as he masters the new technology, he has a terrifying realization. If anything on his computer is vulnerable to an attack, what happens when his mind is linked to the system? Could consciousness itself be hacked?

Brian Falkner, author of The Tomorrow Code and The Project, delivers an action-packed and thought-provoking sci-fi thriller in which logging on to a computer could mean the difference between life and death.

All You Desire by Kirsten Miller - Haven Moore and Iain Morrow have been living a blissful life in Rome, an ocean way from the Ouroboros Society and its diabolical leader. But paradise is not to last. The mysterious disappearance of Haven's best friend, Beau, sends the pair running back to New York, where they encounter the Horae, an underground group of women who have spent centuries scheming to destroy Adam Rosier. Only they can help Haven uncover the secret to Beau's whereabouts in one of her past lives. But their help comes at a price: Haven must infiltrate the Ouroboros Society, charm Adam Rosier, and lure him into a trap. It's a plan the Horae believe will save the world-but Haven and Iain fear that it may destroy the happiness they've been chasing for two thousand years.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld - The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker Powers.
Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

The Haunted by Jessica Verday - After a summer spent reclaiming her sanity and trying to forget the boy she fell in love with--the boy who must not exist, cannot exist, because she knows that he is dead--Abbey returns to Sleepy Hollow, ready to leave the ghosts of her past behind. She throws herself into her schoolwork, her perfume-making, and her friendship with Ben, her cute and funny lab partner, who just might be her ticket to getting over Caspian once and for all.

But Abbey can never get over Caspian, and Caspian has no choice but to return to her side, for Caspian is a Shade, and Abbey is his destiny. They are tied not only to each other, but also to the town of Sleepy Hollow, and to the famous legend that binds their fates--a legend whose dark truths they are only beginning to guess....

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As always, new releases are at least 10% off retail price and we offer free shipping on orders over $25.00. Support Indie booksellers - Shop Kayleighbug.com!

Pottermore.com being targeted by Scammers

2011-08-08T09:52:00.000-04:00

ZDnet reports that Harry Potter fans looking for early access to the site are being targeted by scammers.

The site opened to a limited number of fans on July 31st of this year for early access and opens to everyone in October.

Hardcore fans that weren't able to make it into the limited number of early access accounts have become a target for scammers both on eBay and search engines.

Fake Pottermore.com accounts are showing up on eBay and other auction sites - requiring considerable personal data (as well as cash) to 'register additional accounts.'

Search engines are also being exploited - directing those who search for access to the site to malware-embedded phishing sites that pull your personal data off your computer - passwords, social network IDs, banking information, etc.

A statement from Pottermore.com reminds users that Pottermore accounts will be free - and that essentially, there is no shortcut to gain access until October.

08/02/11 - This Week's New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult

2011-08-02T17:41:00.001-04:00

A great day for releases but a sad day for fans. Author Leslie Esdaile Banks (a.k.a. L. A. Banks) passed away this morning following her battle with adrenal cancer. Our sympathies go out to her family and friends, as well as her legion of fans. There is a benefit this Saturday to help her family cope with the massive bills from her illness. If you cannot attend the benefit (at The Liar's Club in Philadelphia), you can donate to her family via paypal using the "donate" button at the bottom of the benefit information page.

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An amazing debut from Mark Lawrence, a new series from Diane Duane, a reissued classic from Jane Yolen, new contemporary fantasy from Katherine Kerr, Rachel Caine & Rob Thurman, some classic SF from A. Bertram Chandler, and some new SF from Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. PLUS, ROC is reissuing the Garrett Files from Glen Cook - one of my favorite series of all time.

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence - When he was nine, he watched his mother and brother killed before him. By the time he was thirteen, he was the leader of a band of bloodthirsty thugs. By fifteen, he intends to be king...

It's time for Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath to return to the castle he turned his back on, to take what's rightfully his. Since the day he was hung on the thorns of a briar patch and forced to watch Count Renar's men slaughter his mother and young brother, Jorg has been driven to vent his rage. Life and death are no more than a game to him-and he has nothing left to lose.

But treachery awaits him in his father's castle. Treachery and dark magic. No matter how fierce, can the will of one young man conquer enemies with power beyond his imagining?

Home Improvement: Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner - The editors of the New York Times bestselling Death's Excellent Vacation bring home a new collection...with a never-before- published Sookie Stackhouse story!

There's nothing like home renovation for finding skeletons in the closet or otherwordly portals in the attic. Now, for any homeowner who's ever wondered, "What's that creaking sound?" or fans of "how to" television who'd like a little unreality mixed in with their reality shows, editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner return with an all-new collection of the paranormal perils of Do-It-Yourself.

Sookie Stackhouse resides in these pages, in a never-before-published story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. And New York Times bestselling authors Patricia Briggs, James Grady, Heather Graham, Melissa Marr, and nine other outstanding writers have constructed more frightening and funny fixer-upper tales guaranteed to shake foundations and rattle readers' pipes.

Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller - Space ships, action, adventure – all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and family saga – make this a compelling series for a wide range of readers, from romance to military SF lovers alike.Theo Waitley is an ace starship pilot – and pure maverick. Her mom is a renown Terran scholar and her birth father is an interstellar aristocrat in hiding. Whatever, thinks Theo. She still feels like a socially-challenged misfit. But after being selected to train with the best-of-the-best at the pilot academy, she figures she can leave behind those gawky, misfit days of teenage angst that made life so complicated before! But for Theo, life is about to get even MORE complicated – and deadlier still. For even though she’s survived the Academy and become one of the best pilots in the galaxy, the past is about to blast her with gale-force winds. Theo can run, but she can’t hide. Her destiny as master pilot and leader of a powerful Liaden clan calls, and there are LOTS of enemies who will try to make sure she’s quite dead before she has the chance to make an answer.

The Wild Side: Urban Fantasy with an Erotic Edge edited by Mark L. Van Name - Take a walk on the “wild side” of urban fantasy. When the werewolf cubs are asleep and the baby vamps are tucked into their coffins, the adults come out to play! Feeling a bit undead and dying to shuffle off your toil and troubles and get it on? You’ve come to the right place! Spend some quality time lolling in the moonlight shadows with a love that only comes out at night. From light-spirited romps to black-hearted noir, from steampunk London to the bleeding edge of the present, tales of love, eros, betrayal and seduction in a beguiling vein. Best-sellers Tanya Huff, Caitlin Kittredge and Toni L.P. Kelner join Dana Cameron, Sarah A. Hoyt, John Lambshead, Diana Rowland and editor Mark L. Van Name create a dazzling cast of vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies, oh my. Oh my.

First Command by A. Bertram Chandler - The second in a three-volume collection of the legendary John Grimes books! Classic Star Trek meets the high seas. If space travel is going to be anything like sailing the oceans, then A. Bertram Chandler has surely caught its absolute essence in his Grimes novels. Here it is, the entire “Captain John Grimes – Far Traveller Courier” saga, collected in one volume. These are the tales of John Grimes’ action-packed merchantman and courier years. After moving on from the Terran Navy, Grimes tries his hand at leading a private life, and finds he likes being his own man. The only problem is, his ship The Far Traveller has a (very stubborn and very feminine) mind of its own -- and a penchant for getting Grimes into the worse sort of interplanetary pickles!

Includes: The Far Traveller (with the classic John Grimes stories that started it all), Star Courier, To Keep the Ship, Matilda’s Stepchildren, Star Loot, The Anarch Lords, The Last Amazon, and The Wild Ones.

Exiled: Clan of the Claw by S.M. Stirling, John Ringo, Harry Turtledove and Jody Lynn Nye - First entry in a new series with three big all new linked novellas from multiple best-sellers Harry Turtledove, John Ringo & Jody Lynn Nye, and S.M. Stirling! After the extinction asteroid DOESN’T strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving – but so do the mammals. We mammals have achieved human-like shapes, but now it’s cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats. In a heroic, bronze-age world similar to 300, the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands are expanding their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic. It’s mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and will that will determine which line shall inherit the Earth.

Path of the Sun by Violette Malan - On their search for two missing Mercenary Brothers, Dhulyn Wolfshead and Parno Lionsmane must track a serial killer into the Path of the Sun-an ancient labyrinth from which few people return...

Another Kind of Dead by Kelly Meding - She can heal her own wounds. She can nail a monster to a wall. But there's one danger Evangeline Stone never saw coming.

Been there. Done that. Evy Stone is a former Dreg Bounty Hunter who died and came back to life with some extraordinary powers. Now all but five people in the world think she is dead again, this time for good - immolated in a factory fire set specifically for her. Evy and Wyatt, her partner/lover/friend, can no longer trust their former allies, or even the highest echelons of the Triads - the army of fighters holding back from an unsuspecting public a tide of quarreling, otherworldly creatures - they can trust only each other. Because when the Triads raided a macabre, monster-filled lab of science experiments and hauled away the remnants, they failed to capture their creator: a brilliant, vampire-obsessed scientist with a wealth of powerful, anti-Dreg weaponry to trade for what he desires most of all - Evy Stone: alive and well, and the key to his ultimate experiment in mad science.

Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane - Created by Dev Logan, Omnitopia is the most popular and successful massive multiplayer online game ever. But now as Dev is about to roll out a major new expansion to Omnitopia, there are people preparing to play a different game-one that is meant to strike at the heart of Omnitopia and bring the entire system crashing down.

The Diviner by Melanie Rawn - The only survivor of royal treachery that eliminates his entire family, Azzad al-Ma'aliq flees to the desert and dedicates himself to vengeance. With the help of the Shagara, a nomadic tribe of powerful magicians, he begins to take his revenge-but at a terrible cost to himself.

Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman - To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain.

Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved but still marked by a child's innocence, possessed of a remarkable aptitude for violence but capable of extreme tenderness, Cale will lead the Redeemers into a battle for nothing less than the fate of the human race. And though his broken heart foretells the bloody trail he will leave in pursuit of a personal peace he can never achieve, a glimmer of hope remains. The question even Cale can't answer: When it comes time to decide the fate of the world, to ensure the extermination of humankind or spare it, what will he choose? To express God's will on the edge of his sword, or to forgive his fellow man-and himself?

Water to Burn by Katherine Kerr - Secret agent Nola O'Grady is back and ready to save San Francisco from all evildoers, alien and otherwise. With the aid of her bodyguard and lover Ari Nathan, Nola's new mission is to track down and apprehend the mysterious "Brother Belial," head of the now-dispersed Chaos cult-and a possible invader from another dimension.

Labyrinth by Kat Richardson - Harper Blaine was your average small-time P. I. until she died-for two minutes. Now she's a Greywalker, walking the line between the living world and the paranormal realm. There are others who know about her new powers-others with powerful tools and evil intentions, and now that the man who "killed" her has been murdered, the police are also paying close attention. That means Harper has to watch her step while searching for the ghost of her "killer"-who could be a valuable clue in the puzzle of Harper's past and her father's death, as well as a key to figuring out who's trying to manipulate her new powers and why. But with her growing powers pulling her into the Grey, Harper might not be able to come back out...

Introducing Garrett, P.I. by Glen Cook - Garrett is a private investigator with a diverse clientele-from damsels in distress to elves, trolls, and sorcerers. Together for the first time are the first three books in the long-running, groundbreaking series:

In Sweet Silver Blues, Garrett fights vampires and centaurs as he tracks down a woman with a fortune.

In Bitter Gold Hearts, Garrett is hired by a powerful sorcerer to find her kidnapped son.

In Cold Copper Tears, Garrett takes a case for a woman so gorgeous it can only spell trouble.

[Editor's Note: One of my all-time favorite series. Glad to see this back in print!]

Basilisk by Rob Thurman - Stefan Korsak and his genetically-altered brother have evaded the Institute for three years. When they learn the new location of the secret lab, they plan to break in and save the remaining children there. But one of the little ones doesn't want to leave. She wants to kill...

Steelhands by Jada Jones and Danielle Bennett - With Havemercy, Shadow Magic, and Dragon Soul, the acclaimed writing team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett has fused magic and technology into something that can only be termed “magicpunk.” Their distinctive style, featuring a chorus of quirky first-person narrators and brilliantly sophisticated world-building, has won these young writers the plaudits of fans and critics.

In the Volstov capital of Thremedon, Owen Adamo, the hard-as-nails ex–Chief Sergeant of the Dragon Corps, learns that Volstov’s ruler, the Esar, has been secretly pursuing the possibility of resurrecting magically powered sentient robot dragons—even at the risk of igniting another war. That Adamo will not allow. Though he is not without friends—Royston, a powerful magician, and Balfour, a former corpsman—there is only so much Adamo and his allies can do. Adamo has been put out to pasture, given a professorship at the University. Royston, already exiled once, dares not risk the Esar’s wrath a second time. And Balfour, who lost both hands in the climactic battle of the war, is now a diplomat who spends most of his time trying to master his new hands—metal replacements that operate on the same magical principles as the dragons and have earned him an assortment of nicknames of which “Steelhands” is the least offensive.

Working Stiff by Rachel Caine - Bryn Davis was killed on the job after discovering her bosses were selling a drug designed to resurrect the dead. Now, revived by that same drug, she becomes an undead soldier in a corporate war to take down the very pharmaceutical company responsible for her new condition...

Downpour by Kat Richardson - After being shot in the back and dying-again- Greywalker Harper Blaine's only respite from the chaos is her work. But while conducting a pre-trial investigation in the Olympic Peninsula, she sees a ghostly car accident whose victim insists that he was murdered and that the nearby community of Sunset Lakes is to blame. Harper soon learns that the icy waters of the lake hide a terrible power, and a host of hellish beings under the thrall of a sinister cabal that will use the darkest of arts to achieve their fiendish ends...

Spellwright by Blake Charlton - Nicodemus is a young, gifted wizard with a problem. Magic in his world requires the caster to create spells by writing out the text . . . but he has always been dyslexic, and thus has trouble casting even the simplest of spells. And his misspells could prove dangerous, even deadly, should he make a mistake in an important incantation.

Yet he has always felt that he is destined to be something more than a failed wizard. When a powerful, ancient evil begins a campaign of murder and disruption, Nicodemus starts to have disturbing dreams that lead him to believe that his misspelling could be the result of a curse. But before he can discover the truth about himself, he is attacked by an evil which has already claimed the lives of fellow wizards and has cast suspicion on his mentor. He must flee for his own life if he’s to find the true villain.

But more is at stake than his abilities. For the evil that has awakened is a power so dread and vast that if unleashed it will destroy Nicodemus... and the world.

Antiphon by Ken Scholes - Nothing is as it seems to be.

The ancient past is not dead. The hand of the Wizard Kings still reaches out to challenge the Androfrancine Order, to control the magick and technology that they sought to understand and claim for their own.
Nebios, the boy who watched the destruction of the city of Windwir, now runs the vast deserts of the world, far from his beloved Marsh Queen. He is being hunted by strange women warriors, while his dreams are invaded by warnings from his dead father.

Jin Li Tam, queen of the Ninefold Forest, guards her son as best she can against both murderous threats, and the usurper queen and her evangelists. They bring a message: Jakob is the child of promise of their Gospel, and the Crimson Empress is on her way.

And in hidden places, the remnants of the Androfrancine order formulate their response to the song pouring out of a silver crescent that was found in the wastes.

Empress of Eternity by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - In the far future, an indestructible and massive canal more than 2,000 miles long spans the mid-continent of Earth. Nothing can mar it, move it, or affect it in any fashion. At its western end, where it meets the sea, is an equally indestructible structure comprising three levels of seemingly empty chambers.

Scientists from three different civilizations, separated in time by hundreds of thousands of years, are investigating the canal. In the most distant of these civilizations, religious rebellion is brewing. A plot is hatched to overthrow the world government of the Vanir, using a weapon that can destroy anything-except the canal. If used at full power it might literally unravel the universe and destroy all life forever. The lives and fates of all three civilizations become intertwined as the forces behind the canal react to the threat, and all three teams of scientists find their lives changed beyond belief.

Blood Song by Cat Adams - Bodyguard Celia Graves has definitely accepted her share of weird assignments, both human and supernatural. But her newest job takes the cake. Guarding a Prince from terrorists and religious fundamentalists is hard enough, but it seems like the entire supernatural world is after this guy too. When she is betrayed by those she is employed to help, and everything goes horribly wrong, Celia wakes to find herself transformed.

Neither human nor vampire, Celia has become an Abomination—something that should not exist—and now both human and supernatural alike want her dead. With the help of a few loyal friends—a sexy mage, a powerful werewolf, and a psychic cop—Celia does her best to stay alive. On the run from her enemies, Celia must try to discover who is behind her transformation...before it's too late.

The Palace of Impossible Dreams by Jennifer Fallon - Eternity is a long time to be watching over your shoulder...

The Tide is turning, and the Immortals who have walked the world for eons are once again coming into their powers and stepping from obscure boltholes to take control once more.

The very mortal lady Arkady knows of their plans but holds out little hope of being able to stop them. Branded and sold into slavery, Arkady fears all she knows and loves is lost—her husband, Stellan, was probably dead by now, hanged by the Immortal Jaxyn for his own nefarious purposes; and Declan Hawkes, the King of Glaeba's Spymaster and her childhood friend — perhaps the only other human she knew who might risk everything to save her — doesn't even know she's in danger. She will turn to her new owner for help ... but learning the truth about him may cost them both their lives.

And Stellan? Well, it turns out he isn't dead and Jaxyn's plans hit a snag when he realises that Stellan, the one man who can challenge him for the Glaeban throne, has sought asylum in neighbouring Caelum. Strangely enough, the Empress of the Five Realms (a Tide Lord in hiding no more), and the Tide Lords, Tryan and Elyssa, seem to be on Stellan's side ...

Plots within plots. Magic tinges the very air and the Tide will bring mayhem and madness to both mortal and Immortal alike.

Cowboys & Aliens by Joan D. Vinge - Arizona Territory, 1873. A bedraggled, confused stranger stumbles into town. He has no memories and the only real clue to his past is the shackle that encircles his waist. Distrusted at first, this unwelcome refugee soon becomes the cowboys' only hope in repelling an invasion of ferocious alien monsters.

Warriors 3 edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois - From George R. R. Martin’s Introduction to Warriors:
“People have been telling stories about warriors for as long as they have been telling stories. Since Homer first sang the wrath of Achilles and the ancient Sumerians set down their tales of Gilgamesh, warriors, soldiers, and fighters have fascinated us; they are a part of every culture, every literary tradition, every genre. All Quiet on the Western Front, From Here to Eternity, and The Red Badge of Courage have become part of our literary canon, taught in classrooms all around the country and the world. Our contributors make up an all-star lineup of award-winning and bestselling writers, representing a dozen different publishers and as many genres. We asked each of them for the same thing—a story about a warrior. Some chose to write in the genre they’re best known for. Some decided to try something different. You will find warriors of every shape, size, and color in these pages, warriors from every epoch of human history, from yesterday and today and tomorrow, and from worlds that never were. Some of the stories will make you sad, some will make you laugh, and many will keep you on the edge of your seat.”

The stories in the third mass market volume of this book are:
Introduction: Stories of the Spinner Rack, by George R. R. Martin
The Triumph, by Robin Hobb
Soldierin’, by Joe R. Lansdale
Clean Slate, by Lawrence Block
The Girls from Avenger, by Carrie Vaughn
The Pit, by James Rollins
My Name is Legion, by David Morrell
The Custom of the Army, by Diana Gabaldon

The Watchtower by Lee Carroll - Jewelry designer Garet James is still coming to terms with the astounding revelation in BLACK SWAN RISING that she is the last in a long line of women sworn to protect the world from evil. Now she has received a sign from Will Hughes, the 400-year-old vampire who once helped her defeat the evil threatening to destroy New York City. Hughes, tortured by his own violent history which is vividly reenacted here, has asked her to join him on a quest to rid himself of his curse of vampirism. While looking for Will in Paris, Garet encounters a number of mysterious figures-an ancient botanist metamorphosed into the oldest tree in Paris, a gnome who lives under the Labyrinth at the Jardin des Plantes, a librarian at the Institut Oceanographique, and a dryad in the Luxembourg Gardens.

Each encounter leads Garet closer to finding Will Hughes, but she realizes that she’s not the only one who’s trying to find the way to the magical world called the Summer Country. As Garet struggles to understand her family legacy, each answer she finds only leads to more questions—and to more danger.…

Bury Elminster Deep: The Sage of Shadowdale by Ed Greenwood - Elminster's archenemy, the vampiric Lord Manshoon, thinks he has destroyed Elminster at last. But Elminster survives in the form of magical ash, and with the help of his scion, a fop who is growing into a true nobleman, and his longtime companion Storm, he still has a chance to counter Manshoon's insidious plots.

Blood Ties by Mari Mancusi - Officially back in the arms of her vampire boyfriend Magnus, Sunny finds she still can't forget the gentle mortal Jayden who once saved her life. When darkness threatens to steal his humanity, Sunny must make a choice: stay true to her love, or defy him in a desperate attempt to save Jayden's soul.

Meanwhile, the Blood Coven is gearing up for a showdown with a splinter group of Slayer Inc. It's Vampires vs. Slayers in a showdown that could cost Sunny not only her heart...but also her life.

The Dark Elite by Chloe Neill - The first two novels of the Dark Elite series—Firespell and Hexbound.

As the new girl at St. Sophia's boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she'll have to face. In Firespell and Hexbound, she'll find out just how wrong she is, as she falls in with a group of rebel teens defending Chicago from vampires, demons, and the corrupted magic users known as reapers.

Edda by Conor Kostick - Everyone in the virtual universe of Edda is made of pixels-except Penelope. While her body is kept alive in a hospital bed, her avatar runs free, able to go anywhere and do anything, including create deadly weapons for Edda's ruler, her guardian, Lord Scanthax. When Scanthax decides he wants to invade another virtual world, Erik/Cindella from Epic and Ghost from Saga become part of the story-and soon the virtual universes are alive with fighting, alight with bombs, and brought together by three teenagers who want peace and understanding.

Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen - Raised on a mountainside, Jenna learned the arts of the warrior, and from the mountain women the magic of the ancient lore. But the greatest magic of all was her ability to call forth her dark sister from the depths of the mirror of the land of light and shadow.

Skada was the dark one, able to exist only when the moonlight cast a shadow or lamplight flickered in a darkened room.

This is the story of Jenna and Skada.

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Next week: Stay tuned - A New Star Wars novel from Christie Golden and the sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magician are among the books due out next Tuesday. Check our blog for complete details or... subscribe using the buttons in the right column and never miss a book from your favorite author.

07/26/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, YA -

2011-07-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Big release week, particularly in Contemporary Fantasy. This week's titles are headlined by Jim Butcher's new Dresden novel, Ghost Story, as well as Kelley Armstrong's new (and final) Otherworld novel, Spell Bound. Backing up that impressive start is a slew of mass-market releases including a double release (from two different publishers) of Justin Gustainis's urban fantasy/detective fiction.

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher - When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic...

Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong - At last, in the novel every Kelley Armstrong fan will need to own, all the major heroines and heroes of Otherworld are united.

It's been ten years since Bitten, the first novel in Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Otherworld series. In that time hundreds of thousands of fans have ravenously devoured the adventures of Armstrong's witches, demons, and werewolves. Now, in Spell Bound, she brings them all together for her most sweeping tale yet.

Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she's powerless to help herself. At the heartbreaking conclusion of Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would prevent further pain for a young orphan. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise.

And now, witch-hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell-casting talent, the thing she counts on most. In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Armstrong gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jamie, Hope, and other beloved characters, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within.

Black Night by Christina Henry - Madeline Black is an Agent of death, meaning she escorts the souls of people who have died to the afterlife. Of course, not everyone is happy to see her...

If obstinate dead people were all that Maddy had to worry about, life would be much easier. But the best-laid plans of Agents and fallen angels often go awry. Deaths are occurring contrary to the natural order, Maddy's being stalked by foes inside and outside of her family, and her two loves-her bodyguard, Gabriel, and her doughnut-loving gargoyle, Beezle-have disappeared. But because Maddy is Lucifer's granddaughter, things are expected of her, things like delicate diplomatic missions to other realms.

Heroes at Odds by Moira J. Moore - Shield Lee Mallorough and Source Shintaro Karish are steadfast in their commitment to protect Westsea no matter what disaster-natural or man-made-may befall it. But before our heroes can discern why so many people are suddenly interested in gaining control of Westsea, Lee's family arrives with some startling news. Long before she was trained as a Shield, she was betrothed as part of an alliance with another merchant clan-and her "fiancé" is determined to see Lee fulfill her contract...

Shadowflame by Dianne Sylvan - It's been three months since musician Miranda Grey became a vampire and married David Solomon. But when a powerful force from David's past appears, Miranda begins to realize how little she really knows about her husband.

Stark's War by John G. Henry - In a brutal battle for control of Earth's satellite, Sergeant Ethan Stark must train his squadron to fight in an airless atmosphere against a desperate enemy. But ensuring survival means choosing which orders to obey-and which to ignore.

A Soldier's Duty by Jean Johnson - Ia is a precog, tormented by visions of the future where her home galaxy has been devastated. To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary.

Bloodlands by Christine Cody - It was called the New Badlands, home to the survivors of a cataclysm that altered the entire nation. Then the vampires arrived, and it was rechristened the Bloodlands. Not because of the vampire, but because of the gun-for-hire who'd decided to slay every monster in the country by any and every means necessary.

Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis - Stan Markowski is a Detective Sergeant on the Scranton PD's Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit.

Like the rest of America, Scranton's got an uneasy 'live and let unlive' relationship with the supernatural. But when a vamp puts the bite on an unwilling victim, or some witch casts the wrong kind of spell, that's when they call Markowski. He carries a badge. Also, a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a 9mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets.

File Under: Urban Fantasy [ Dial V For Vampire | Forbidden Spells | Bite Club | Scranton By Night ]

[Editor's Note - I'll be reviewing this title later this week - along with another Angry Robot release: Debris.]

Restoration (World House Book 2) by Guy Adams - NONE WHO ENTER THE WORLD HOUSE LEAVE IT UNCHANGED. In some rooms, forests grow; animals roam and objects come to life. Great secrets and treasures await the brave or foolhardy. And at the very top of the house, the prisoner it was all built to contain sat behind a locked door waiting for the key to turn.

The day that happened, the world ended.

A sequel to the stunning "The World House".

Modern Fantasy [Worlds within Worlds | End of Days | A Prisoner Escapes | Dark Powers]

Citizens edited by John Ringo and Brian M. Thomsen - Legendary science fiction writers – and citizen warriors – deliver science fiction military adventure tales on a grand scale. Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Laumer, Wolfe, and other greats. Giants of science fiction. Plus all new fiction by recent vets who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military veterans all. This is the Book of Dreams for anyone who enjoys military science fiction. Gritty takes on future combat. Penetrating looks into the warrior’s character, the harsh reality of a life under arms – and how society deals with those it desperately needs and often fails to honor as it should.

Genius-level storytelling at its very best – introduced and edited by multiple New York Times best-seller and U.S. Army veteran John Ringo and noted scholar Brian M. Thomsen.

Monster Hunter Alpha by Larry Correia - Dirty Harry meets Twilight. #3 in the break-out series and a follow-up to Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta.

Earl Harbinger may be the leader of Monster Hunter International, but he’s also got a secret. Nearly a century ago, Earl was cursed to be werewolf. When Earl receives word that one of his oldest foes, a legendarily vicious werewolf that worked for the KGB, has mysteriously appeared in the remote woods of Michigan, he decides to take care of some unfinished business. But another force is working to bring about the creation of a whole new species of werewolf. When darkness falls, the final hunt begins, and the only thing standing in their way is a handful of locals, a lot of firepower, and Earl Harbinger’s stubborn refusal to roll over and play dead.

Do Unto Others... by Michael Z. Williamson - The Prescot family were miners. At one time, they were contracted to develop technology for a mineral rich but uninhabitable system. Gradually, all the investors shied away. Then the Prescots broke through with the technology needed to exploit entire planets, and incidentally develop domed playgrounds for the perversely rich, including indoor ski slopes and cable cars over megavolcanos, casinos and rides. This created the economic problem of being the richest people in the universe, having more money than most governments and effectively unlimited resources. Money is a small blessing when enemies are quite willing to spend billions for the chance at trillions. Bryan Prescot and his daughter might as well have targets painted on their backs for the thugs, kidnappers, and assassins their competitors would throw at them. Bodyguards were necessary - highly trained bodyguards who could be bought once and be utterly loyal no matter the circumstances. Caron Prescot has only six bodyguards against an army, but she has two aces in the hole: The miners are on her side, and Elke, Ripple Creek's psychotic demolition expert, has a nuke. The problem with Elke having a nuke is that Elke WILL use it!

Nagash Immortal by Mike Lee - In the tunnels of Nagashizzar, a new threat to the realm of the undead is rising. Nagash must call upon all his reserves of power to defeat the skaven assault and continue his unholy reign. But when Nagash realises he can use his enemy for his own nefarious needs, an uneasy alliance is struck and a vast, nightmarish army is formed. The necromancer launches his final attack on the lands of Nehekhara, sweeping all before him. Only one man dare stand in his way – Alcadizzar, a peerless warrior and the leader of a defiant force. Their confrontation will not just decide the fate of Nehekhara, but of all the Old World.

Imperial Glory by Richard Williams - Tired and broken by war, the men of the Brimlock Eleventh Imperial Guard are a force on the verge of collapse. Having been stretched across the galaxy by their loyalty to the Emperor, they are presented with one final battle that will allow them reward they all seek: to colonise the distant world of Vorr and live out the rest of their days in peace. All that stands in their way is a force of savages – a plague of feral orks that has spread across the planet. But can the Brimlock’s battered bodies and minds hold up to this greenskin invasion?

Conan the Barbarian: The Stories That Inspired the Movie by Robert E. Howard - Conan the Barbarian is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created—a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, annihilating powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and whole armies of ruthless foes. Today his name is synonymous with the epic battles of ancient times, but Conan originated in the early decades of the twentieth century with one of the founding fathers of fantasy, the visionary Robert E. Howard. The unforgettable stories collected here form a thrilling adventure, following Conan from his mercenary youth to his bloody conquests on the frontier and even the high seas. Bold and enduring, the legend of Conan the Barbarian continues to grow in popularity and influence.

Also: Michael Stackpole's novelization of the film: Conan the Barbarian

After America by John Birmingham - The world changed forever when a massive wave of energy slammed into North America and wiped out 99 percent of the population. As the United States lay in ruins, chaos erupted across the globe.

Now, while a skeleton American government tries to reconstruct the nation, swarms of pirates and foreign militias plunder the lawless wasteland where even the president is fair prey. In New York City, armies of heavily armed predators hold sway—and hold off a struggling U.S. military. In Texas, a rogue general bent on secession leads a brutal campaign against immigrants. And in England, a U.S. special ops agent enters a shadow war against a deadly enemy who has made the fight personal. While the president ponders a blitz attack on America’s once greatest city, the forces of order and anarchy wage all-out war for postapocalyptic dominance—and a handful of survivors must decide how far to go to salvage whatever uncertain future awaits . . . after America.

Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks - Five hundred years have passed since the devastating demon-led war tore apart the United States and nearly exterminated humankind. Those who escaped the carnage were led to sanctuary in an idyllic valley, its borders warded by powerful magic against the horrors beyond. But the cocoon of protective magic surrounding the valley has now vanished. When Sider Ament, the only surviving descendant of the Knights of the Word, detects unknown predators stalking the valley, he fears the worst. And when expert Trackers find two of their own gruesomely killed, there can be no doubt: The once safe haven has been made vulnerable to whatever still lurks in the outside wasteland. Together, Ament, the two young Trackers, and a daring Elf princess spearhead plans to defend their ancestral home. And in the thick of it all, the last wielder of the black staff and its awesome magic must find a successor to carry on the fight against the cresting new wave of evil.

Tattoo by Kirsten Imani Kasai - In an environmentally fragile world where human and animal genes combine, the rarest mutation of all—the Trader—can instantly switch genders. One such Trader, the female Sorykah, is battling her male alter, Soryk, for dominance and the right to live a full life.

Sorykah has rescued her infant twins from mad Matuk the Collector. Her children are safe. Her journey, she believes, is over, but Matuk’s death has unleashed darker, more evil forces. These forces, led by the Collector’s son, cast nets of power that stretch from the glittering capital of Neubonne to the murky depths below the frozen Sigue, where the ink of octameroons is harvested to make addictive, aphrodisiacal tattoos. Bitter enemies trapped within a single skin, Sorykah and Soryk are soon drawn into a sinister web of death and deceit.

Cold Magic by Kate Elliott - The Wild Hunt is stirring - and the dragons are finally waking from their long sleep...

Cat Barahal was the only survivor of the flood that took her parents. Raised by her extended family, she and her cousin, Bee, are unaware of the dangers that threaten them both. Though they are in beginning of the Industrial Age, magic - and the power of the Cold Mages - still hold sway.

Now, betrayed by her family and forced to marry a powerful Cold Mage, Cat will be drawn into a labyrinth of politics. There she will learn the full ruthlessness of the rule of the Cold Mages. What do the Cold Mages want from her? And who will help Cat in her struggle against them?

Stormlord's Exile by Glenda Lark - SHALE is finally free from his greatest enemy. But now, he is responsible for bringing life-giving rain to all the people of the Quartern. He must stretch his powers to the limit or his people will die-if they don't meet a nomad's blade first. And while Shale's own highlords and waterpriests plot against him, his Reduner brother plots his revenge.

TERELLE is Shale's secret weapon, covertly boosting his powers with her own mystical abilities. But she is compelled by the strange magic of her people and will one day have to leave Shale's side. No one knows what waits for her across the desert, but her people gave the Quartern its first Stormlord and they may save Shale and his people once again-or lead them to their doom.

This is the final volume of the epic Stormlord series.

Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler - Nothing says "home" like being attacked by humans with very large guns, as Jane and Anyan discover when they arrive in Rockabill. These are professionals, brought into kill, and they bring Anyan down before either Jane or the barghest can react. Seeing Anyan fall awakens a terrible power within Jane, and she nearly destroys herself taking out their attackers.

Jane wakes, weeks later, to discover that she's not the only thing that's been stirring. Something underneath Rockabill is coming to life: something ancient, something powerful, and something that just might destroy the world.

Jane and her friends must act, striking out on a quest that only Jane can finish. For whatever lurks beneath the Old Sow must be stopped...and Jane's just the halfling for the job.

Shadow Fall by Seressia Glass - Kira Solomon’s life has never been simple. Battling against the Fallen, serving the Egyptian goddess Ma’at, becoming romantically involved with a 4,000-year-old Nubian warrior—these are now everyday realities. But something is changing. Kira’s magic is becoming dangerously unpredictable, tainted by the Shadow she has been trained to destroy.

Matters grow worse when an Atlanta museum exhibit based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead turns out to have truly sinister properties. As the body count rises, even long-trusted allies start to turn against Kira. She can hardly blame them—not when the God of Chaos is stalking her dreams and the shocking truth about her origins is finally coming to light. As one of the good guys, Kira was a force to be reckoned with. But if the only way to stop a terrifying adversary is to fight Shadow with Shadow, then she’s ready to find out just how very bad she can be. . . .

Sympathy for the Devil by Justin Gustainis - Senator Howard Stark wants to be President of the United States. So does the demon inside him. With the competing candidates dropping out due to scandal, blackmail, and ‘accidental’ death, Stark looks like a good bet to go all the way to the White House. And if he gets there, Hell on Earth will follow.

Occult investigator Quincey Morris and white witch Libby Chastain are determined to stop this evil conspiracy. But between them and Stark stand the dedicated agents of the US Secret Service – as well as the very forces of Hell itself. Quincey and Libby will risk everything to exorcise the demon possessing Stark. If they fail, ‘Hail to the Chief’ will become a funeral march – for all of us.

Dangerous Waters by Juliet E. McKenna - The Archmage rules the island of wizards. From here he enforces the Edicts of the Council of Wizardry. Foremost is the ban on magecraft in warfare. But there is a rumour of rogue wizardry in Lescar’s recent civil war. There’s the rise of Artifice, its adepts not subject to the Archmage’s edicts. Now the Emperor of Tormalin is offering them his protection. There are corsairs raiding the Caladhrian Coast, enslaving villagers and devastating trade. Barons and merchants beg for magical aid. But all help has been refused.

This is no comfort to Lady Zurenne whose husband has been murdered by corsairs. Now a man she doesn’t even know stands as guardian over her and her daughters. Corrain, former captain and now slave, knows that man is a rogue wizard, selling his skills to the corsairs. If Corrain can escape, he’ll see justice done. Unless Jilseth, magewoman and Archmage’s confidante, can catch the renegade first, before the full extent of his villainy is revealed.

If that happens, at a time when wizardry faces so many other challenges, the scandal could have dire consequences indeed!

Dangerous Waters is the first book in a stunning new fantasy series from a major voice in fantasy.

The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding - Deep in the heart of the Kurg rainforest lies a long-forgotten wreck. On board, behind a magically protected door, an elusive treasure awaits. Good thing Darian Frey, captain of the airship Ketty Jay, has the daemonist Crake on board. Crake is their best chance of getting that door open—if they can sober him up. For a prize this enticing, Frey is willing to brave the legendary monsters of the forbidding island and to ally himself with a partner who’s even less trustworthy than he is.

But what’s behind that door is not what any of the fortune hunters expect, any more than they anticipate their fiercest competitor for the treasure—a woman from Frey’s past who also happens to be the most feared pirate in the skies.

Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead - Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses Seth Mortensen, the shy, sexy writer she's been dating, she'll drain his life force. Admittedly, the shapeshifting and immortality perks of a succubus are terrific, but it's completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can't get down with the one mortal who accepts her for who she is. . .

It's not just her personal life that's in chaos. Doug, Georgina's co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, and Georgina suspects something far more demonic than double espressos. She could use an assist from Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, but he's giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one—and fast, because soon, Doug's life won't be the only one on the line. . .

The Host by Stephanie Meyer - Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring one of the most unusual love triangles in literature, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel about the persistence of love and the essence of what it means to be human.

The Seeker by Isabells Carmody - New from acclaimed fantasy author Isobelle Carmody comes The Seeker, an omnibus edition of the first two books in the dystopian fantasy the Obernewtyn Chronicles—Obernewtyn and The Farseekers!

Discover the adventure! Elspeth Gordie has a secret: she's a Misfit, born with mental powers that would mean her death if discovered. But she's not alone, and her exile to the mysterious compound known as Obernewtyn is just the beginning....

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer - When Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemies, she’s certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer—one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack—and the man—she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive.

Wildefire by Karsten Knight - Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

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As always, all new releases are at least 10% off at Kayleighbug Books. Order on our site or call toll-free 1-866-343-4516.

Review: Soul Stealers by Andy Remic

2011-07-23T11:27:00.000-04:00

Soul Stealers [Book 2 of the Clockwork Vampires] by Andy Remic

ISBN: 9780857660671 | Cover Price $7.99 | 412 pp.

Buy It Here!

Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10 | Excellent Dark Fantasy

Overview: In Book 1 of the Clockwork Vampires (Review Here) The Iron Army invaded the lands of men, bringing Kell and his bloodbond axe, Ilanna, out of retirement and into the battlefield. Graal and his Iron Army are crushing the lands of men and their Harvesters are (literally) sucking the life-blood from them.

Kell is dying from poison - as is his neice, Nienna, who has been abducted by a woman desperate for the 'cure' the Vachine can provide her dying body. Graal has sent his assassins, the beautiful and deadly Soul Stealers, to kill Kell as well.

Kell needs to survive the poison, rescue his niece, and somehow get rid of an invading army of near-immortals.

Review: Remic steps up the gore level a bit in this one. If you read Kell's Legend and had a hard time eating dinner afterwards, stop now, it only gets better. In addition to the increased action and gore levels, Remic changes things a bit from his first outing in the series. Where Kell's Legend was very linearly told, Soul Stealers alternates viewpoints considerably more - giving us more back-story and motivations of the other players in the story.

Remic didn't set out to write another Song of Ice and Fire. The political machinations, plot twists, and motivations in the Clockwork Vampire series are fairly strait-forward. You don't need a wall-sized map and a reference book on the family trees to keep up. This is head-on Sword & Sorcery in the tradition of David Gemmell, Robert E. Howard, or Fritz Leiber.

That said, you will find treachery, backstabbing, plot twists (including some big ones), and a truck-load of action.

Conclusion: Do you need to read Kell's Legend first? YES. The books in this trilogy don't stand on their own.. cliffhanger endings, insufficient back-story, etc. They are certainly meant to be read as a set.

Thus, the review of this novel is heavily dependent on its predecessor. I am enjoying the series, and have and will continue to recommend it. I found the more frequent viewpoint changes in this book a bit intrusive to the storyline and would have preferred more linear continuity. I gave Soul Stealers a half-point less than the first of the trilogy primarily due to this. If hardcover Sword & Sorcery with clockwork and vampires thrown in sounds great to you, you won't be disappointed, The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles starts strong with Kell's Legend and continues strong with Soul Stealers. Vampire Warlords is Book 3 and is available now as well.

Review: Kell's Legend by Andy Remic

2011-07-20T09:50:00.000-04:00

REVIEW

Kell's Legend [Book 1 of the Clockwork Vampires] by Andy Remic

ISBN: 9780857660169 | Cover Price $7.99 | 444 pp.

Buy It Here!

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 | Excellent Dark Fantasy

Overview: Kell is retired from the hero game, long retired. Not that he was ever really a hero to begin with. His deed's and his axe may be legend but that man wasn't a good man and he's not that man any more.

Now Kell is living a quiet life, secretly paying his granddaughter's way through University and sneaking visits with her when he can. He believes that she's the only real good thing he's done in his life and he means to make sure she grows up right.

Then, the Iron Army comes - sacking the city with sorcery and albino soldiers. The city has no defense against the ice-smoke that freezes men in their tracks. But Kell can still fight, his blood-bond axe Ilanna rendering him immune to the sorcery. He grabs his niece, Niena, her friend, Kat, and picks up a sidekick along the way - and heads out to warn the king of the invasion.

Review: Andy Remic has paid obvious homage to David Gemmell's work with this series. Gemmell's Legend tells the story of Druss, Captain of the Axe, whose deeds are Legend but who got old, turned his back on his own legend and retreats to solitude until barbarian hordes invade, forcing him back into the role of the hero.

Remic's story is not a mere retelling of Gemmell's, however. Kell is his own character and Remic's world is vastly different. While the core idea behind the story may be homage to Gemmell, the meat of this story is all Remic.

I will never use the terms "non-stop thrill ride" or "roller-coaster" in a review but you get the idea. This novel is non-stop action with a high body count. Kell is a well-crafted character and his reluctant sidekick, Saark provides some levity to the quest.

The idea of the aged hero coming out of retirement may have been perfected in Gemmell's Legend but it's been done many times in fantasy novels, science fiction, and television. The beauty of this plot element is that, done well, it gives us a hero that my generation can relate to - someone that knows the aches and pains that come with age but still possesses the iron core that made him a hero in the first place.

Remic did it well. Kell is a believable hero, a believable grandfather - cranky and sore in the morning, hardened to the world and the nature of man. His blood-bond axe, Ilanna, gives him the power to fight again like a young man, but it's still the mind of the old guiding that hand.

Remic's world at first seems to be a traditional fantasy setting - in the realm where Kell resides. Over the Black Pike Mountains though, the Vachine reside. Vampire machines, bred and constructed from the remnants of the vampire race - now living as a hybrid race, part vampire, part clockwork, subsisting on blood-oil, a refined product fueled with dark magic and blood.

Vachine General Graal leads the invasion into the human lands - seeking blood for the refineries and leading an army of albino warriors, slave-race to the vachine - and followed by Harvesters, a virtually unkillable being that harvests the blood for the vachine refineries.

Conclusion: If you like epic fantasy and don't mind (or enjoy) a high gore level, this is a solid start to a series that is well worth the read. Remic tells a great story, packed to the margins with action. 'Ware the cliffhanger ending if you only purchase the first book. I'd have liked to see more of the Vachine but otherwise, I have few complaints about this novel.

07/19/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult

2011-07-19T07:14:00.000-04:00

A fairly short list of releases this week but with some great new SF from Angry Robot, a Star Wars novel by Zahn, a new Warcraft novel, and some great SF from TOR.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes - Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty online 419 scam habit – and a talent for finding lost things. But when her latest client, a little old lady, turns up dead and the cops confiscate her lastpaycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job: missing persons

An astonishing second novel from the author of the highly-acclaimed Moxyland.

FILE UNDER: Modern Fantasy [Black Magic Noir / Pale Crocodile / Spirit Guardians / Lost Stars]

The War That Came Early: The Big Switch by Harry Turtledove - In this extraordinary World War II alternate history, master storyteller Harry Turtledove begins with a big switch: what if Neville Chamberlain, instead of appeasing Hitler, had stood up to him in 1938? Enraged, Hitler reacts by lashing out at the West, promising his soldiers that they will reach Paris by the new year. They don’t. Three years later, his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler has barely survived a coup, while Jews cling to survival. But England and France wonder whether the war is still worthwhile.

Weaving together a cast of characters that ranges from a brawling American fighter in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler’s evil face-to-face, Harry Turtledove takes us into a world shaping up very differently in 1941. The Germans and their Polish allies have slammed into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, while Japan pummels away in the east. In trench warfare in France, French and Czech fighters are outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. Then the stalemate is shattered. In England, Winston Churchill dies in an apparent accident, and the gray men who walk behind his funeral cortege wonder who their real enemy is. The USSR, fighting for its life, makes peace with Japan—and Japan’s war with America is about to begin.

A sweeping saga of human passions, foolishness, and courage, of families and lovers and soldiers by choice and by chance, The Big Switch is a provocative, gripping, and utterly convincing work of alternate history at its best. For history buffs and fans of big, blood-and-guts fiction, Harry Turtledove delivers a panoramic clash of ideals as powerful as armies themselves.

World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden - The Hour of Twilight. She’d spoken of it at the meeting, tried to warn the others of it, but the warning had gotten lost; a little bright fragment of . . . something . . . had been briskly swept away like a broken bit of pottery beneath an industrious broom. It was—

She gnawed her lower lip, thinking.

It was the greatest challenge the dragonflights would face, but she did not know against whom they would be fighting. It might come soon . . . or aeons from now. Could it have something to do with the return of Deathwing? Surely it had to . . . did it not? This breaking of the world was one of the worst things that had ever happened to Azeroth.

How could she persuade others of the direness of the situation when she herself could not articulate it? She uttered a little noise of annoyance and frustration.

One thing she knew for certain. There were many pieces missing from this puzzle, but there was one core piece that was necessary before any of the others could fall into place. It was a very strange piece, an unlikely one at best, and she was uncertain as to how he would fit in. She only knew that he had to.

Ysera had seen him, floating in and out of her dreaming. She had thought she understood his role in things, but now, peculiar as it seemed, something—some inner certainty that even she did not fully understand—was leading her to think she had not seen the full breadth of his contribution to Azeroth.

He was not a dragon. But he had the interests of the dragonflights in his heart—whether he knew it or not. He straddled worlds—but did not seek to rule or command or destroy them. He was unique.
She tilted her head, let the wind play with her long green hair. Perhaps that was why he fit in. Even the Aspects were not singular beings, although each had unique abilities. Not one but five there had been at the beginning, when the titans had come and shared their power for the good of Azeroth. Four there were now, but there would soon be five again, when the blues determined how to choose the one who would lead them.

But there was only one like this being.

There was only one Thrall.

Star Wars: Choices of One by Timothy Zahn - From #1 New York Times bestselling author Timothy Zahn comes a brand-new Star Wars adventure, set in the time between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and featuring the young Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and the beloved Mara Jade.

The fate of the Rebellion rests on Luke Skywalker’s next move.

But have the rebels entered a safe harbor or a death trap?

Eight months after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion is in desperate need of a new base. So when Governor Ferrouz of Candoras Sector proposes an alliance, offering the Rebels sanctuary in return for protection against the alien warlord Nuso Esva, Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are sent to evaluate the deal.

Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand, is also heading for Candoras, along with the five renegade stormtroopers known as the Hand of Judgment. Their mission: to punish Ferrouz’s treason and smash the Rebels for good.

But in this treacherous game of betrayals within betrayals, a wild card is waiting to be played.

Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley - It's the end of World War II. FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Taxes are at an all-time high. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business has many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom is diminishing . . . and many are desperate to take there freedom back.

Among them is a great dreamer, an immigrant who pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and admired men in the world. That man is Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserve better. And so he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government, censorship, and moral restrictions on science--where what you give is what you get. He created Rapture---the shining city below the sea.

But as we all know, this utopia suffered a great tragedy. This is the story of how it all came to be . . .and how it all ended.

Out of the Waters by David Drake - The second novel of The Books of the Elements.

The wealthy Governor Saxa, of the great city of Carce, has generously and lavishly subsidized a theatrical/religious event. During this elaborate staging of Hercules founding a city on the shores of Lusitania, strange and dark magic turns the panoply into a chilling event. The sky darkens and the waves crash in the flooded arena. A great creature rises from the sea: a huge, tentacled horror on snake legs. It devastates the city, much to the delight of the crowd. A few in the audience, although not Saxa, understand that this was not mere stagecraft, but something much darker and more dangerous. If all signs are being read right, this illusion could signify a dreadful intrusion of supernatural powers into the real world. Saxa’s son, Varus, has been the conduit for such an event once before.

This new novel in David Drake’s chronicles of Carce, The Books of the Elements, is as powerful and elaborate as that fantastic theatrical event, a major fantasy for this year.

The Knowledge of Good & Evil by Glenn Kleier - On December 4, 1968, world-famous theologian Father Louis Merton visited the ancient Dead City of Polonnaruwa, Ceylon, entered the Cave of the Spirits of Knowledge, and experienced a vision. It’s claimed he found a backdoor to the Afterlife, that he looked into the Mind of God and escaped with a secret so powerful it could change all humanity…bring wars to a standstill…end forever the age-old hatreds between races, creeds and cultures.

Six days later as Merton prepared to announce his discovery at a religious conference, he suffered a horrific death under mysterious circumstances. But the secret did not die with him. Merton left behind a journal…
Years later, beautiful psychologist Angela Weber and her troubled fiancé, Ian Baringer, are on the hunt for Merton’s long-lost journal and its door to the Afterlife. Angela, an agnostic, wants to help Ian heal the wounds of a traumatic childhood plane crash that took the lives of his parents. Ian, a defrocked priest, no longer trusts in religion’s promise of eternal life. He must know for certain if he will ever see his parents again, and is driven to find out firsthand what lies beyond, and what it holds for mankind.

Together, Angela and Ian plunge headlong into a global chase, pursued by a shadowy cult, dead bodies and destruction in their wake. If Ian and Angela succeed, they will defy the gates of heaven and hell to learn a secret hidden from the world since the dawn of time . . .

The Knowledge of Good & Evil.

This Shared Dream by Kathleen Ann Goonan - Kathleen Ann Goonan introduced Sam Dance and his wife, Bette, and their quest to alter our present reality for the better in her novel In War Times (winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel and ALA's Best Science Fiction Novel of 2008). Now, in This Shared Dream, she tells the story of the next generation.

The three Dance kids, seemingly abandoned by both parents when they were younger, are now adults and are all disturbed by memories of a reality that existed in place of their world. The older girl, Jill, even remembers the disappearance of their mother while preventing the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Goonan has created a new kind of utopian SF novel, in which the changes in history have created a present world that is in many ways superior to our own, while in other worlds people strive to prevent their own erasure by restoring the ills to ours. This Shared Dream is certainly the most provocative SF speculation of the year, and perhaps the decade.

Half-Made World by Felix Gilman - A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared—the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they're just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.

To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

The Robot by Paul E. Watson - Science-loving Gabe and girl-crazy Dover are best friends. In fact, they're practically each other's only friends. So when Gabe's parents leave town for the weekend, he lets Dover convince him to break into his father's basement laboratory-even though he knows it's off-limits under penalty of lifelong grounding. Once inside, the boys make a shocking discovery, one that will turn a boring weekend into a hilarious madcap adventure: a smoking hot robot!

While Gabe and Dover argue over "Trina," the robot flees the lab. The chase is on! Before the day is over, she'll expose a traitorous plot, catapult two geeky freshmen to high school fame, and try to assassinate Dr. Phil!

Ripple by Mandy Hubbard - Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren - a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi's curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she's ever had to make: the life she's always longed for - or the love she can't live without?

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As always, all new releases are at least 10% off at Kayleighbug Books. Order on our site or call toll-free 1-866-343-4516.

07/12/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult

2011-07-12T07:45:00.002-04:00

For the second week in a row, the big release news is A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin. Martin took years to finish this masterpiece - and TOR took only a few months to get it in print - and got it to stores more than a week early.

Christa Faust's much-hyped Supernatural novel is out this week - as well as a nice selection of YA titles.

No Man's World: The Ironclad Prophecy by Pat Kelleher - It has been three months since the 13th Battalion of the Pennine Fusiliers vanished from the WW1 battlefield of the Somme and found themselves stranded on an alien world. Since then, their trenches have become the target for vengeful alien attacks. The tank, Ivanhoe, is sent on the trail of Jeffries, the impostor many hold responsible for their plight. Lance Corporal ‘Only’ Atkins and his Black Hang Gang, along with a captured alien Khungarrii are ordered to find him.

While the encampment faces an alien threat, the Black Hand Gang discover an ancient edifice containing a secret that will tear the Battalion apart. As the Pennines fight for their lives against the mounting horrors of No Man’s World, their only hopes for survival – and a way home – lie in the psychotropic fuel-addicted crew of the Ivanhoe and its increasingly insane commander

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin - In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance - beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys's claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stoneâ€”a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.

Supernatural: Coyote's Kiss by Christa Faust - A truck full of illegal Mexican immigrants slaughtered with supernatural force is found by the side of a road. Trying to find answers, Sam and Dean are plunged into the dangerous world that exists along the Mexican border.

They encounter a tattooed, pistol-packing bandita on a motorcycle who seems be everywhere they go before they get there. Xochi Cazadora draws them into a whole new world of monsters...

A Supernatural novel that reveals a previously unseen adventure for the Winchester brothers, from the hit TV series!

Wildcat: Fireflies by Amber Kizer - Meridian Sozu is a Fenestra—the half-human, half-angel link between the living and the dead. She has the dark responsibility of helping souls transition safely into the afterlife. If people die without the help of a Fenestra, their souls are left vulnerable to be stolen by the Aternocti, a dark band of forces who disrupt the balance of good and evil in the world and cause chaos.

Having recently lost her beloved Auntie—the woman who showed her what it meant to be a Fenestra—Meridian has hit the road with Tens, her love and sworn protector, in hopes of finding another Fenestra. Their search leads them to Indiana, where Juliet, a responsible and loving teenager, works tirelessly in the nursing home where she and several other foster kids are housed. Surrounded by death, Juliet struggles to make a loving home for the younger kids, and to protect them from the violent whims of their foster mother. But she is struggling against forces she can't understand . . . and even as she feels a pull toward the dying, their sickness seems to infect her, weighing her down. . . .

Will Meri and Tens find Juliet in time to save her from a life of misery and illness? And will Meri and Tens' own romance weather the storms of new discoveries?

Siren's Storm by Lisa Papdemetriou - Nothing has been the same for Will ever since what happened last summer. One day, on an ordinary sailing trip with his brother, there is a strange accident. When Will wakes up, he learns his brother has disappeared, presumed drowned. Worst of all, Will can't remember what happened—his family finds him unconscious, with no memory of the accident.

Now Will and his best friend and neighbor, Gretchen, are starting a new summer. Gretchen seems troubled—her sleepwalking habit is getting worse, and she keeps waking up closer and closer to the water. Will is drawn to Asia, the exotic new girl in town. Nobody knows where she's from—all Will knows is that her beauty and her mesmerizing voice have a powerful effect on people.

Then there is another mysterious drowning, and Will and Gretchen begin to wonder: Is Asia just another beautiful, wealthy summer resident? Or is she something entirely more sinister . . . and inhuman?

Bad Taste In Boys by Carrie Harris - Someone's been a very bad zombie.

Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steriods are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate! She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town . . . and stay hormonally human.

Undercurrent by Tricia Rayburn - The sirens are back, but Vanessa may be the biggest threat of all. . . .

Nothing has been normal since Vanessa Sands learned that her sister was murdered by sirens—femme fatales of the watery depths—and that everything she believed about her family was a lie.

Her boyfriend Simon’s been the only person Vanessa feels she can really trust. But now there are some secrets she can’t tell even him. And when Vanessa finds herself in the sights of Parker, Hawthorne Prep’s resident charmer, she needs someone to confide in more than ever.

Doubting her relationship with Simon, unsure of Parker’s intentions—and of her own—and terrified by what she’s learned about herself, Vanessa has never felt so alone.

But personal problems must be put aside, because the Winter Harbor sirens are back for revenge. Now, Vanessa must face her past and accept that she is just like her enemies—every bit as alluring, every bit as dangerous.

The eagerly anticipated second novel of the Siren trilogy, Undercurrent is a seductive paranormal romance that will leave you breathless.

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore - Amy Goodnight's family is far from normal. She comes from a line of witches, but tries her best to stay far outside the family business. Her summer gig? Ranch-sitting for her aunt with her wacky but beautiful sister. Only the Goodnight Ranch is even less normal than it normally is. Bodies are being discovered, a ghost is on the prowl, and everywhere she turns, the hot neighbor cowboy is in her face.

Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - Cooper Blake has everything going for him—until he wakes from a car accident with his football career in ruins and a mysterious, attractive girl by his side. Cooper doesn’t know how Samantha got there or why he can see her; all he knows is that she’s a ghost, and the shadows that surround her seem intent on destroying her.

No one from Cooper’s old life would understand what he can barely grasp himself. . . . But Delilah, the captain of the cheerleading squad, has secrets of her own, like her ability to see beyond the physical world, and her tangled history with Brent, a loner from a neighboring school who can hear strangers’ most intimate thoughts. Delilah and Brent know that Cooper is in more trouble than he realizes, and that Samantha may not be as innocent as she has led Cooper to believe. But the only way to figure out where Samantha came from will put them all in more danger than they ever dreamed possible.

Sleepless by Cyn Balog - Eron DeMarchelle isn't supposed to feel this connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce his human charges to sleep. Though he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn't encouraged to do so. After all, becoming too involved in one human's life could prevent him from helping others get their needed rest.

But he can't deny that he feels something for Julia, a lonely girl with fiery red hair and sad dreams. Just weeks ago, her boyfriend died in a car accident, and Eron can tell that she feels more alone than ever. Eron was human once too, many years ago, and he remembers how it felt to lose the one he loved. In the past, Eron has broken rules to protect Julia, but now, when she seems to need him more than ever, he can't reach her. Eron's time as a Sandman is coming to a close, and his replacement doesn't seem to care about his charges. Worse, Julia is facing dangers she doesn't recognize, and Eron, as he transitions back to being human, may be the only one who can save her. . . .

Even once they've become human again, Sandmen are forbidden to communicate with their charges. But Eron knows he won't be able to forget Julia. Will he risk everything for a chance to be with the girl he loves?

Cyn Balog's follow-up to Fairy Tale has more wit, more supernatural delights, and more star-crossed romance! Teen girls will love this story of a Sandman who falls in love with his human charge.

Hero by Mike Lupica - Zach Harriman knew that his dad was something of a hero, a man trusted by the president to solve international crises at a moment's notice. Suddenly people are telling him he has powers - people who know much more about his father than Zach ever did. But there are the Bads, who appear out of nowhere and attack him and his best friend. One thing is clear: he can do things ordinary people cannot. Like fend off grown men as though he possesses the strength of a hundred. Like sense when evil is about to strike. And evil is about to strike in a very big way. Zach Harriman is his father's son. And he, too, is a hero.

"Every kid wants to be a superhero. Well, be careful what you wish for - you might get it. This is the amazing story of Zach Harriman and nothing Mike Lupica has written will thrill you like this." - William Goldman

Shiver Trilogy Box Set by Maggie Stiefvater - Shiver: Sam’s not just a normal boy — he has a secret. During the summer he walks and talks as a human, but when the cold comes, he runs with his pack as a wolf. Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house — but never dreamed that she would fall in love with one of them. Now that they’ve found each other, the clock ticks down on what could be Grace and Sam’s only summer together.

Linger: Can Grace and Sam last? Each will have to fight to stay together — whether it means a reckoning with his werewolf past for Sam, or for Grace, facing a future that is less and less certain. Enter Cole, a new wolf who is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being human. For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life is harrowing and euphoric, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But can it be enough?

Forever: For Grace, Sam, and Cole, the story continues — only now, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. It’s becoming harder and harder to hold on to one another. In the conclusion to Maggie Stiefvater’s bestselling, breathtaking trilogy, love is the question — and the answer.

Dragon's Oath by P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast - The first in an enthralling new mini-series of novellas from the #1 bestselling authors of the House of Night, Dragon’s Oath tells the story behind the House of Night’s formidable fencing instructor – the love that will transform him, and the promise that will haunt him

In early 19th century England, long before he’s a professor at the Tulsa House of Night, Bryan Lankford is a troublesome yet talented human teen who thinks he can get away with anything… until his father, a wealthy nobleman, has finally had enough, and banishes him to America. When Bryan is Marked on the docks and given the choice between the London House of Night and the dragon-prowed ship to America, he chooses the Dragon – and a brand new fate.

Becoming a Fledgling may be exciting, but it opens a door to a dangerous world.... In 1830’s St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, Dragon Lankford becomes a Sword Master, and soon realizes there are both frightening challenges and beautiful perks. Like Anastasia, the captivating young Professor of Spells and Rituals at the Tower Grove House of Night, who really should have nothing to do with a fledgling…

But when a dark power threatens, Dragon is caught in its focus. Though his uncanny fighting skills make him a powerful fledgling, is he strong enough to ward off evil, while protecting Anastasia as well? Will his choices save her—or destroy them all?

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As always, all new releases are at least 10% off at Kayleighbug Books. Order on our site or call toll-free 1-866-343-4516.

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Clockwork Vampire trilogy by Andy Remic: Reviews coming soon!

07/05/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Steampunk

2011-07-06T13:38:00.000-04:00

OK, so I took a month off of writing the new releases blog.. sorry! I'm back at it now, though a day or two late on this week's - a situation that I'm blaming on the holiday weekend.

The big news this week is actually a July 12th release, one of the most anticipated books in quite a few year - George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons - scheduled for release next week but already in stores so we're counting it on this week's issue.

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin - In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance-beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys's claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone-a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.

Rule 34 by Charles Stross - Detective Inspector Liz Kavanaugh is head of the Rule 34 Squad, monitoring the Internet to determine whether people are engaging in harmless fantasies or illegal activities. Three ex-con spammers have been murdered, and Liz must uncover the link between them before these homicides go viral.

Heaven's Shadow by David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt - The science fiction epic of our time has arrived.

Three years ago, an object one hundred miles across was spotted on a trajectory for Earth's sun. Now, its journey is almost over. As it approaches, two competing manned vehicles race through almost half a million kilometers of space to reach it first. But when they both arrive on the entity, they learn that it has been sent toward Earth for a reason. An intelligent race is desperately attempting to communicate with our primitive species. And the message is: Help us.

Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels - David Drake's two Tom Kelly technothrillers in one volume. Day-after-tomorrow technothriller action with a raw, gritty and extremely effective hero you might want to forget, but can't, fending off Soviet aggression and alien attack. Skyripper.

During the Cold War, a Soviet scientist has knowledge the Earth will be attacked by aliens, but only the U.S. has the laser-based technology to knock out the alien weaponry. Enter Tom Kelly, American spy, navigator of the U.S. intelligence agency spaghetti, and ruthlessly effective operative when it comes to doing his job. Kelly will get the information into the right hands to save most of humanity- but in the process, he's prepared to annihilate anyone who gets in the way of his duty. FortressTom Kelly and his ruthless, adventurous ways return in an alternate past as JFK builds a space station to guard against alien attack. Now nefarious forces with the Soviet Union as well as actual, evil aliens are trying to turn it against Earth, and the U.S. THEY may have the high ground and the element of surprise on their hands, but WE have Tom Kelly. For better or worse. Or both.

Ring of Fire III by Eric Flint - Let’s do the “Time Warp” again! Another rollicking, thought-provoking collection of tales by a star-studded array of top writers such as bestseller Mercedes Lackey and Eric Flint himself – all set in Eric Flint’s phenomenal Ring of Fire series.

Rock on, Renaissance! A cosmic accident sets the modern West Virginia town of Grantville down in war-torn seventeenth century Europe. It will take all the gumption of the resourceful, freedom-loving up-timers to find a way to flourish in mad and bloody end of medieval times. Are they up for it? You bet they are. The third rollicking and idea-packed collection of Grantville tales edited by Eric Flint, and inspired by his now-legendary 1632.

Undercurrents by Robert Buettner - Ace intelligence operative Lt. Jazen Parker parachutes into Tressel, a planet which resembles Earth in its Paleozoic era, on a mission to bring down the local politicos. He quickly realizes he’s been handed a near-impossible task. Tressel is a politically-quarantined nightmare world with a culture confined to iron rivet technology and a ruling regime a bit to the right of Heinrich Himmler. Jazen’s inclined to abandon this particular hellhole to its ways--that is, until he uncovers a plot afoot that will throw a five hundred-planet alliance into the death-throes of anarchy.

So the local Nazis must go. Unfortunately, all Jazen’s got to work with is a handful of rust-bucket tanks, a retread rebellion, and two strong, beautiful women who love him, but think he’s tilting at windmills and is about to get himself killed. What they don’t know is, once committed, Jazen Parker is the best there is when it comes to getting the dirty job done on the ground. It’s the local bullies who are about to be taught a lesson in losing.

Blood Secrets by Jeannie Holmes - Alex allowed a case involving murdered vamps to get personal and is suspended from the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation. Now she’s facing an official inquiry but has a chance to redeem herself. The catch: She must once again work with Varik Baudelaire, her former mentor and ex-fiancé, as he spearheads a search for a missing college student. But Varik has been keeping secrets from Alex, and his mysterious past is on a collision course with his present.

When Alex and Varik discover a carefully handcrafted doll at a crime scene, neither of them can see how close the danger really is or that a killer known as the Dollmaker has made Alex the object of his horrific desire. Now the only way out of the Dollmaker’s lair is through the twilight realm of the Shadowlands, where all secrets—for better or worse—will be revealed.

Conan the Barbarian by Michael A. Stackpole - Born in the fires of battle, Conan of Cimmeria lost his father and village when they were slaughtered by the cruel warlord Khalra Zym. Wandering the world alone, Conan was forged into a peerless warrior by hardship and bloodshed.

Years later, he crosses paths with Zym and his armies. But before Conan can exact vengeance, he must contend with the warlord's daughter-the seductive witch Marique-and a host of monstrous creatures. Only then will Conan's quest bring him face to gave with Zym in an epic battle to avenge his people and save the world.

Night Veil by Yasmine Galenorn - Cicely Waters had always thought she was simply one of the magic-born---a witch who can control the wind---but recently she discovered she's also one of the shifting Fae. Now she must perfect her gift. Because Cicely and her friends may have escaped from Myst and her Shadow Hunters, but Myst has managed to capture the Fae prince who holds Cicely's heart.

Bloodlust by Michelle Rowan - Jillian Conrad's blood has killed the vampire king. Now an enemy to all vampires, she is targeted for elimination. So is the infant daughter of the dead king. If Jillian doesn't stand in the way of her death, then everyone, living or dead, is in great peril.

The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines - When a spell gone wrong shatters Snow White's enchanted mirror, a demon escapes into the world. The demon's magic distorts the vision of all it touches, showing them only ugliness and hate. It is a power that turns even friends and lovers into mortal foes, one that will threaten humans and fairies alike.

Undead and Undermined (Queen Betsy) by MaryJanice Davidson - Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor thought she couldn't die. So what's she doing in the morgue? It could have something to do with a time- traveling trip she made, and a foe with a wicked agenda that could finally be the real death of Betsy-if she's not careful.

Citadels of the Lost by Tracy Hickman - The Rhonas Empire of elves is built upon a thirst for conquest, disdain for other races, and an appetite for hedonistic self-gratification. They have complete control of the Aether — the mystical substance that fuels their magic. One use of this Aether is to compel total obedience of the slaves drawn from the races they have defeated.

But there are legends that tell of a time when humans and other slave races were free and dragons flew the skies. And they speak of a hero who will return to lead an uprising against their masters: a human named Drakis.

When Aer magic, the magic of nature itself, is wielded by Jugar, a captive dwarf, it signals the start of a rebellion straight from legend. In the ensuing chaos, the former warrior-slave Drakis Sha-Timuran, with a small group of slaves, flees for his life and freedom — lured by a melody that conjures visions of dark wings, scales, and fire. Following the melody he alone can hear, Drakis stumbles on the truth behind the legends: the dragons are real!

Can they survive the dangers of this treacherous realm and bring the truth behind the legends to the army of rebellion?

Song of the Dragon by Tracy Hickman - Once humans had magic and an alliance with dragons. Now they and the other races have been enslaved by the Rhonas Empire-the elves-and can't even remember the world the way it used to be. But thanks to the intervention of one determined dwarf and the human slave warrior known as Drakis, all of that is about to change.

Hammered by Kevin Hearne - Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully—he’s ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he’s asked his friend Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare.

One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus’s home base of Tempe, Arizona. There’s a vampire turf war brewing, and Russian demon hunters who call themselves the Hammers of God are running rampant. Despite multiple warnings and portents of dire consequences, Atticus and Leif journey to the Norse plain of Asgard, where they team up with a werewolf, a sorcerer, and an army of frost giants for an epic showdown against vicious Valkyries, angry gods, and the hammer-wielding Thunder Thug himself.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland - Teenage delinquent Angel Crawford lives with her redneck father in the swamps of southern Louisiana. She's a high school dropout, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and has a police record a mile long. But when she's made into a zombie after a car crash, her addictions disappear, except for her all-consuming need to stay "alive"...

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman - Raised from early childhood in the Redeemer Sanctuary, the stronghold of a secretive sect of warrior monks, Thomas Cale has known only deprivation, punishment, and grueling training. When he escsapes to the outside world, Cale learns that his embittered heart is still capable of loving- and breaking.

But the Redeemers won't accept the defection of their prized pupil without a fight...

Titus Awakes by Mervyn Peake - Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy is widely acknowledged to be, as Robertson Davies pronounced, "a classic of our age." In these extraordinary novels, Peake created a world where all is like a dream--lush, fantastical, and vivid. Yet it was incomplete. Parkinson's disease took Peake's life in 1968, depriving his fans of the fourth and final volume of the series, Titus Awakes except for a few tantalizing pages, after which his writing became indecipherable. Or so it seemed.

In January of 2010, Peake's granddaughter found four composition books in her attic. They contained the fabled Titus Awakes in its entirety. Peake had outlined the novel for his wife, Maeve Gilmore, who had at last finished Peake's masterpiece.

It starts with Titus leaving Castle Gormenghast. Peake wrote: "With every pace he drew away from Gormenghast mountain, and from everything that belonged to his home. That night, as Titus lay asleep in the tall barn, a nightmare held him. "

Fans of Peake will delight in this new, wonderful novel, published one hundred years after his birth, every bit as thrilling and masterfully written as his famed trilogy.

A Shot in the Dark by K. A. Stewart - Jesse James Dawson's vacation is interrupted by a pack of hell-spawned creatures. To save friends, family and himself, Jesse will have to put his trust in his most dangerous enemy-his personal demon.

Dragon Outcast by E. E. Knight - Dragon Outcast continues E. E. Knight's thrilling fantasy series about a brood of young dragon siblings—-each unique, each powerful, and each fated to battle the other to the end. Here, the darkest of the dragons is introduced as he strives to make himself the strongest—-and the last—-of his brethren.

Grave Dance by Kalayna Price - After a month of down time, Grave Witch Alex Craft is ready to get back to solving murders by raising the dead. With her love life in turmoil, Alex is eager for the distractions of work. But when her new case forces her to overuse her magic, it might be the last mystery the Grave Witch ever gets to solve...

Dead Iron: The Age of Steamby Devon Monk - Welcome to a new America that is built on blood, sweat, and gears...

In steam age America, men, monsters, machines, and magic battle for the same scrap of earth and sky. In this chaos, bounty hunter Cedar Hunt rides, cursed by lycanthropy and carrying the guilt of his brother's death. Then he's offered hope that his brother may yet survive. All he has to do is find the Holder: a powerful device created by mad devisers-and now in the hands of an ancient Strange who was banished to walk this Earth.

In a land shaped by magic, steam, and iron, where the only things a man can count on are his guns, gears, and grit, Cedar will have to depend on all three if he's going to save his brother and reclaim his soul once and for all...

Viper Moon by Lee Roland - Cassandra Archer is the Huntress. She has faithfully served the Earth Mother for years, rescuing kidnapped children from monsters-both human and supernatural-dwelling in the ruins of the Barrows District. But when two children are kidnapped under similar circumstances, all clues point to a cataclysmic event on the next dark moon. Now Cass must race against the clock and prevent a sacrifice that could destroy the entire town...

Cold Touch by Leslie Parrish - Since being gifted-or cursed-with the ability to touch a lifeless body and relive the deceased's final moments, Olivia Wainwright has died a hundred deaths. And every glimpse into this darkness draws her deeper into danger.

Though he doesn't believe in psychics, Savannah Detective Gabe Cooper offers her a glimmer of light. As their bond deepens, Olivia will have to choose between her cold gift and the warmth Gabe can provide. And Gabe can't refuse when she needs his help solving a crime that's haunted her for over a decade-her own murder.

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones - Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.

This is a thrilling debut novel from an exciting newcomer to the world of paranormal romantic suspense.

Year's Best Science Fiction #28 edited by Gardner Dozois - In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world.

This venerable collection brings together award winning authors and masters of the field such as Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Damien Broderick, Carrie Vaughn, Ian R. MacLeod and Cory Doctorow. And with an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.

Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow - In this thrilling collection of original stories some of today’s hottest paranormal authors delight, thrill and captivate readers with otherworldly tales of magic and mischief. In Jim Butcher’s ”Curses” Harry Dresden investigates how to lift a curse laid by the Fair Folk on the Chicago Cubs. In Patricia Briggs’ “Fairy Gifts,” a vampire is called home by magic to save the Fae who freed him from a dark curse. In Melissa Marr’s “Guns for the Dead,” the newly dead Frankie Lee seeks a job in the afterlife on the wrong side of the law. In Holly Black’s “Noble Rot,” a dying rock star discovers that the young woman who brings him food every day has some strange appetites of her own.

Featuring original stories from 20 authors, this dark, captivating, fabulous and fantastical collection is not to be missed!

7th Sigma by Steven Gould - Welcome to the territory. Leave your metal behind, all of it. The bugs will eat it, and they’ll go right through you to get it…Don’t carry it, don’t wear it, and for god’s sake don’t come here if you’ve got a pacemaker.

The bugs showed up about fifty years ago—self-replicating, solar-powered, metal-eating machines. No one knows where they came from. They don’t like water, though, so they’ve stayed in the desert Southwest. The territory. People still live here, but they do it without metal. Log cabins, ceramics, what plastic they can get that will survive the sun and heat. Technology has adapted, and so have the people.

Kimble Monroe has chosen to live in the territory. He was born here, and he is extraordinarily well adapted to it. He’s one in a million. Maybe one in a billion.

In 7th Sigma, Gould builds an extraordinary SF novel of survival and personal triumph against all the odds.

Honeyed Words by J. A. Pitts - Sarah Beauhall is a blacksmith, has a night job as a props manager for a low-budget movie, and spends her free time fighting in a medieval re-enactment group. Her world falls apart when she discovers that dragons are real and live among us as shapeshifters; in fact, it is they who have been the secret masters of our world from time immemorial. On top of all this, it appears that Sarah has managed to reforge an ancient sword that everyone suddenly wants...and those who don’t want the weapon want Sarah to take on her destiny and become humanity’s saviour.

As Sarah tries to make her way in this new world, she discovers just how little she knows of reality. Fairies and dwarves and giants abound, the fault line of the Pacific Northwest is rife with ancient Norse magic. Odin himself appears with ravens at his side and cryptic advice for the fledgling heroine. And the cherry on the sundae? The discovery that Sarah’s girlfriend is from a family that has been battling these forces for generations and they look to Sarah as their last best hope.

What’s a girl to do when the powers of the world decide that you’re responsible for cleaning up the magical mess?

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons - It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic childhood. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields, their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once-peaceful town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood — against an arcane abomination who owns the night....

The House of Caine by Ken Eulo - When Rob Martin left Millhouse, he was barely out of his teens and Millhouse was his beloved hometown. Ten years later, Rob returns for a brief visit and finds that beneath the calm surface of small-town America, a terrible evil is brewing.

For decades, vampires have lived secretly in Millhouse, selecting victims who will not be missed. Now a great thirst is upon them, for blood and the pleasures of the flesh. Now they have grown more brazen, seducing not just vulnerable loners but some of Millhouse’s leading citizens. Rob’s old girlfriend, Elizabeth, is having amazing erotic dreams, dreams that leave her feeling drained and weak the next morning, afraid and yet eager to return to sleep.

As mutilated bodies turn up, drained of blood, the sheriff and town council look for a normal explanation for the wave of violence that is engulfing their town—but there is nothing normal about a nest of vampires. Only Rob, his best friend Tony, and a few stalwarts are prepared to drive a stake through the heart of the vampire menace. But will they act fast enough to save Elizabeth’s life . . . and soul?

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As always, all new releases are at least 10% off at Kayleighbug Books. Order on our site or call toll-free 1-866-343-4516.

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Later this week, we'll be reviewing the first and second books of the Clockwork Vampire trilogy by Andy Remic - stay tuned!

Details of Rowling's Pottermore.com released

2011-06-23T08:39:00.000-04:00

While speculation ran rampant last week after the announcement of Pottermore.com, the actual details of the site at once fall short of and exceed many of those suggestions.

Pottermore.com is/will be a Harry Potter portal - first and foremost, the exclusive retailer of the Harry Potter ebooks and digital audiobooks. In addition, the site will host more than 18,000 words of additional content on the Harry Potter universe from J. K. Rowling, and, according to Rowling, will be a place where the user can enjoy a "safe, unique, online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books."

The official launch is Oct. 31st, 2011 but it is supposedly possible for a few to gain entry to the site early in order to start building the content. Users returning to the site after July 31st can access the site early by "following the owl." - a cryptic clue which will likely guide would-be's through an application process.

Amazon expands publishing presence with Ed McBain backlist

2011-06-22T13:01:00.000-04:00

Retailer giant Amazon.com is pushing further into the trade publishing market with the recent acquisition of author Ed McBain's backlist.

Amazon's Thomas & Nelson crime publishing imprint has acquired the rights to more than 35 of McBain's 87th Precinct novels as well as some others. Amazon will begin releasing the novels this fall in print, ebook and audio formats. This will be the first time that McBain's 87th Precinct novels are available in digital formats.

J. K. Rowling to announce new book soon?

2011-06-16T08:25:00.000-04:00

The book trade is rife with speculation this morning following the launch of a new site by J. K. Rowling. Rowling's Pottermore.com reveals nothing more than a logo and Rowling's signature. A scavenger hunt of sorts among the top Harry Potter fan sites revealed a letter at a time of the URL to fans yesterday.

While no one knows what will be revealed on the new site, Rowling has indicated that she is writing again and has several new projects in the works. The site itself is rumored to be incredible, with an unnamed source at hpana.com having claimed to have seen it and describing it as "breathtaking in scope, detail and sheer beauty."

A spokeswoman from Stone Salt, Rowling's PR firm told The Bookseller that: "It is not another Harry Potter book but we cannot reveal any more at this stage, fans will have to keep an eye on the website. It will be launching soon."

Here's hoping that whatever Ms. Rowling is working on, she can continue the streak that brought millions of new fans to the fantasy genre and to reading itself.

06/07/11 - [Part 3] New Releases in Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Steampunk, YA

2011-06-07T17:01:00.001-04:00

Part III (of III) of this week's new SF/Fantasy/Horror/Etc. releases:

Memories of Envy by Barb Hendee - Reluctant vampire Eleisha Clevon has made a home for herself and other vampires in Portland, Oregon, teaching them to feed without killing. But vampire Simone Stratford wants nothing to do with her. Simone loves to feed, and to play twisted games with her victims before striking. When Eleisha and her protector, Philip Brante, go to Denver to search for Simone, what they find is far worse-and more seductive-than either one bargained for.

The Morganville Vampires, Volume 4 (Fade Out & Kiss of Death) by Rachel Caine - Two of New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire novels in one volume.

Fade Out
Without the evil Bishop ruling over Morganville, the vampires have made major concessions to the human population. But when a filmmaker goes missing after starting work on a documentary about vampires, Claire Danvers and her friends feel anything but safe...
Kiss of Death
Vampire Michael Glass's music has attracted the attention of a music producer-giving Michael the opportunity to leave Morganville. But between a horde of hateful humans and a savage party of feral vampires, Michael may not make it to the show on time...or ever.

Everdark by Elle Jasper - When Savannah tattoo artists Riley Poe is ambushed by an undead enemy, she inherits some of the traits of her attackers-and a telepathic link with a rampaging vampire. Now, she's experiencing murder after murder through the victims' eyes. And her new powers will not be enough to stop the horror-or the unending slaughter...

Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance - Cassandra Palmer recently defeated a god, which you'd think would buy a girl a little time off. But it doesn't work that way when your job description is Pythia-the world's chief clairvoyant. Cassie is busier than ever, trying to learn about her power, preparing for her upcoming coronation, and figuring out her relationship with the enigmatic sexy master vampire, Mircea.

But someone doesn't want Cassie to become Pythia, and is willing to go to any lengths to make sure the coronation ceremony never happens- including attacking her mother before Cassie is even born.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Elixir by Hilary Duff - Clea Raymond is a talented photojournalist and the daughter of high-profile parents. Usually she’s in total control of her camera, but after Clea’s father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, eerie, shadowy images of a strange and handsome young man begin to appear in Clea’s photos—a man she has never seen in her life.

When Clea suddenly encounters this man in person she is stunned—and feels an immediate and powerful connection. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father’s disappearance and discover the centuries-old truth behind their intense bond. Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fate, together they race against time to unravel their past in order to save their future—and their lives.

Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke - Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she's been told she's destined for great things. Zoë's the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she's sent to a Pyr boot camp.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.

Crush Control by Jennifer Jabaley - Willow has spent most of her life as her mother's sidekick in a popular Las Vegas hypnotism show. So when she and her mom move back to their sleepy southern hometown to start over, she thinks she's in for a life of quiet normalcy. Except that her new life turns out to be anything but, when she kinda sorta hypnotizes Quinton, the hottest guy on the football team, to fall madly, deeply, head over heels in love with her. But what started out as an innocent way to make her best friend, Max, jealous soon gets way out of hand, and Willow begins to wonder if the mind - and more importantly, the heart - is something you can really control.

Worldshaker by Richard Harland - Col is a wealthy child of privilege. Raised to succeed his grandfather as the Supreme Commander of the juggernaut Worldshaker, he has lived a pampered life on the Upper Decks. He has never questioned his place in the world or his bright and illustrious future. But when a Filthy girl stows away in his cabin, suddenly nothing is clear anymore. Quick and clever, Riff is nothing like the Filthies that Col always learned about—the dumb, slow, less-than-human folk who toil away Below, keeping Worldshaker moving. Filthies are supposed to be animal-like, without the power of speech or the ability to think for themselves—but Riff is clever and quick and outspoken, and Col is drawn to her despite himself.

As Col begins to secretly spend more time with Riff, he begins to question everything he was raised to believe was true, and realizes that if Riff is right, then everything he was raised to believe is a lie. And Col himself may be the only person in a position to do something about it—even if it means risking his future

The Nine Lives of Chloe King: The Fallen; The Stolen; The Chosen by Liz Braswell (Celia Thomson) - Chloe King is a normal girl. She goes to class (most of the time), fights with her mom, and crushes on a boy…or two. But around her sixteenth birthday, Chloe finds that perhaps she isn’t so normal after all. There’s the heightened night vision, the super fast reflexes – oh, and the claws.

As she discovers who she is – and where she comes from – it is clear she is not alone. And someone is trying to get her.

Chloe has nine lives. But will nine be enough?

Possession by Elana Johnson - Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.

But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they’re set on convincing Vi to become one of them….starting by brainwashed Zenn. Vi can’t leave Zenn in the Thinkers’ hands, but she’s wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous: everything Zenn’s not. Vi can’t quite trust Jag and can’t quite resist him, but she also can’t give up on Zenn.

This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby - While most students at Burtonwood Academy get to kill demons and goblins, fifteen-year-old Emma gets to rid the world of little annoying fairies with glittery wings and a hipster fashion sense. She was destined to be a dragon slayer, but cute and charming Curtis stole her spot. Then she sees a giant killer fairy - and it's invisible to everyone but her! If Emma has any chance of stopping this evil fairy, she's going to need help. Unfortunately, the only person who can help is Curtis. And now, not only has he stolen her dragon-slayer spot, but maybe her heart as well! Why does she think it's going to be a fairy bad day?

Everlasting by Alyson Noel - Their epic love story has captured the hearts of millions and enchanted readers across the world. In this beautiful finale, their journey draws to a spectacular conclusion—where all will be revealed.

Their darkest enemies now defeated, Damen and Ever are free to embark upon their final quest—to free Damen from the poison lingering in his body. If they can just find the antidote, they’ll finally be able to feel each other’s touch—and experience the passionate night they’ve been longing for. But their fight to be together will lead them into the most formidable terrain yet…into the dark heart of Summerland.

Here in a land of scorched earth and endless rain, Ever and Damen will discover their relationship’s hidden origins, expose a secret history they never imagined…and come face to face with the true reason fate keeps tearing them apart. Only then, when the final mystery is unraveled and the last secret revealed, Ever and Damen’s future will hinge on one ultimate decision that will put everything at stake….even eternity.

06/07/11 - [Part 2] New Releases in Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Steampunk, YA

2011-06-07T16:30:00.002-04:00

Part II (of III) of this week's new genre releases:

The Osiris Ritual (A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation) by George Mann - Sir Maurice Newbury, Gentleman Investigator for the Crown, imagines life will be a little quieter after his dual success in solving The Affinity Bridge affair. But he hasn’t banked on the reemergence of his villainous predecessor, Knox, who is hellbent on achieving immortality, and seems to be pursued by a secret agent who isn’t quite as he seems….

The whole affair is so baffling that Newbury is reluctant to take time away from it to attend to the mysterious murders in the wake of the unveiling of an Egyptian mummy, let alone his partner Veronica’s apparent obsession with tracking the growing pool of young women who have disappeared after being used as props in a magician’s stage act. But it’s all part of a day’s work when your boss is the queen of England.

So begins a thrilling steampunk mystery, the second in the series of Newbury & Hobbes investigations, and a grand adventure quite unlike any other.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young - Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

Thistle Down by Irene Radford - Dusty Carrick lived in the small town of Skene Falls, Oregon, her entire life. And, like many of the local children, she played with "imaginary" Pixie friends in Ten Acre Woods.

But the Pixies are not imaginary at all, and Ten Acre Woods is their home. Now, the woods are in danger, and if it falls, the Pixies too will die. Only Thistle Down, exiled from her tribe and trapped inside a mortal woman's body, can save her people-as long as she can convince Dusty Carrick to help her before it's too late.

Tongues of Serpents: A Novel of Temeraire by Naomi Novik - Convicted of treason despite their heroic defense against Napoleon’s invasion of England, Temeraire and Capt. Will Laurence have been transported to a prison colony in distant Australia—and into a hornet’s nest of fresh complications. The colony is in turmoil after the overthrow of military governor William Bligh—aka Captain Bligh, late of HMS Bounty. And when Bligh tries to enlist them in his bid to regain office, the dragon and his captain are caught in the middle of a political power struggle. Their only chance to escape the fray is accepting a mission to blaze a route through the forbidding Blue Mountains and into the interior of Australia. But the theft of a precious dragon egg turns their expedition into a desperate recovery operation—leading to a shocking discovery and a dangerous new complication in the global war between Britain and Napoleon.

Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jean Rabe - From the co-editor of Steampunk'd comes an all-new collection of adventure and romance amid Victorian steampunk settings. Sparks fly in these original stories of a steam-driven airship searching for a lost city, a crazy inventor in a powered wheelchair with a plot to take over the world, and a love story set in an alternate history version of America. Adventure abounds in these stories of love, loss, and danger- and there is plenty of steam!

Includes stories from Michael A. Stackpole, Jody Lynn Nye, Stephen D. Sullivan, and more.

Who Fears Death? by Nnedi Okorafor - In a far-future, post-apocalyptic Saharan Africa, genocide plagues one region. When the only surviving member of a slain village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand, and instinctively knows her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelege of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers she possesses a remarkable and unique magic. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to confront nature, tradition, history, the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and eventually to learn why she was given the unusual name she bears: Who Fears Death?

Dragongirl (Dragonriders of Pern) by Todd McCaffrey - With a cast of beloved characters from previous Pern novels, Dragongirl is another triumph for Todd McCaffrey—and a riveting chapter for the Dragonriders of Pern.

Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned with the dragons and riders who fled into the past to heal their battle wounds and prepare to fight anew the menace of Thread. Now more than three years older, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman—thrust into authority by a shocking tragedy. But leading weyrfolk who are distrustful of a young outsider will be only one of her challenges. Despite gaining reinforcements from the past, too few dragons have survived the recent plague to stem the tide of the intensifying Threadfall. As a senior Weyrwoman, Fiona must take decisive action. With the aid of Lorana, the rider who sacrificed her dragon for others, and Fiona’s true love, the harper Kindan, she proposes a daring, nearly impossible plan. But if it succeeds, it just might save them all.

Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson - They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late. When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

For Heaven's Eyes Only by Simon R. Green - The fifth Eddie Drood novel from the New York Times bestselling author.

After the murder of the Drood Matriarch, the family finds itself vulnerable to evil. This time, it's a Satanic Conspiracy that could throw humanity directly into the clutches of the Biggest of the Bads...

From Hell With Love by Simon R. Green - It's no walk in the park for a Drood, a member of the family that has protected humanity from the things that go bump in the night for centuries. They aren't much liked by the creatures they kill, by ungrateful humans, or even by one another.

Now their Matriarch is dead, and it's up to Eddie Drood, acting head of the family, to figure out whodunit. Unpopular opinion is divided: it was either Eddie's best girl, Molly. Or Eddie himself. And Eddie knows he didn't do it.

Chicks Kick Butt by Rachel Caine & Kerrie Hughes - Chicks are awesome—and never more so than when they are kicking some serious vampire/werewolf/demon/monster butt.

Chicks Kick Butt is an anthology that features one of the best things about the urban fantasy genre: strong, independent, and intelligent heroines who are quite capable of solving their own problems and slaying their own dragons (or demons, as the case may be).

Edited by Kerrie Hughes and Rachel Caine, Chicks Kick Butt features original stories from thirteen authors, eleven of whom are New York Times bestsellers:

- Rachel Caine (with a story from her bestselling Weather Wardens universe) -- L.A. Banks -- Rachel Vincent -- Karen Chance -- Lilith Saintcrow -- Cheyenne McCray -- Susan Krinard -- Jeanne Stein -- Jenna Black -- Elizabeth Vaughan -- Carole Nelson Douglas -- P.N. Elrod -- Nancy Holder

Elminster Must Die by Ed Greenwood - The long-anticipated return of Elminster, the most famous mage in the Forgotten Realms--now in paperback!

Elminster, the most famous wizard in the Forgotten Realms, has foiled countless world-spanning threats, leaving a trail of powerful enemies behind him. Now that the Spellplague has robbed Elminster of much of his power, those enemies are coming out of the shadows, whetting their blades, and preparing to hunt him down.

Dwarfs: A Warhammer Omnibus by Nick Kyme and Gav Thorpe - The dwarfs are a stoic and long-lived race. Their unbending will and pride serve them as fearsome warriors on the battlefield and the greatest craftsmen across the Old World. But cross them at your peril, as a dwarf grudge is never forgotten, a quest for revenge handed down from generation to generation until the debt is settled in blood…

In this action-packed omnibus, the bravery and resilience of the dwarfs is brought to life as they wage war against the twisted powers of Chaos, vile skaven ratmen, brutal greenskins and their oldest adversaries, the mysterious and powerful elves. From the ancient dwarf holds to the killing fields of the Empire, war will be waged in the name of Grungni , Grimnir and Valaya, and no foe shall forget the day they met these unbreakable warriors in battle. Contains the novels Grudgebearer, Oathbreaker and Honourkeeper.

Hexed by Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James & Jeanne C. Stein - Four of the bestselling names in romance and fantasy come together in this collection of thrilling novellas featuring powerful women who know how to handle a hex or two...

"New York Times" bestselling author Ilona Andrews spins "Magic Dreams." Shapeshifting tigress Dali Harimau finds herself in deep waters when she must challenge a dark being to a battle of wits or risk losing the man for whom she secretly longs.

In "Ice Shards," "New York Times" bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn returns to the Otherworld as Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite, journeys to the frozen Northlands to confront the crazed shadow of her former lover and break the curse that is keeping her from marrying the man she loves.

National bestselling author Allyson James takes you to Magellan, Arizona, where Stormwalker Janet Begay and her friends are trapped by a powerful curse. It will take every bit of magic simmering beneath her skin for the Stormwalker to survive being "Double Hexed."

From national bestselling author Jeanne C. Stein comes "Blood Debt," in which bounty-hunter-turned-vampire Anna Strong is visited by three witches who ask her to right an old magical wrong. Anna will have to live up to her last name to make it through alive.

Lightborn by Alison Sinclair - Minhorne is a city divided. An ancient curse makes darkness anathema to the Lightborn, while a touch of sunlight kills the Darkborn. Thus its people share a home but live forever separate. Until a prince's death turns Darkborn against Lightborn, earthborn against mage, as conspiracies and betrayals are revealed in both worlds...

Shadowborn by Alison Sinclair - From the author of Lightborn, the third book in a Regency- flavored fantasy series of magic and manners.

Magic dies with the mage, or so the Darkborn believe. That's why Lady Telmaine Hearne has been condemned to death for sorcery. She's escaped but is now bound with her mageborn allies for the Borders and war. Meanwhile, her husband, Balthasar, has learned of his family connection to the Shadowborn-and is fighting for survival and sanity as magic turns him against everything he holds dear.

06/07/11 - [Part 1] New Releases in Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Steampunk, YA

2011-06-06T19:38:00.001-04:00

Hexed: The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne - Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty—when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.

With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.

The Pack by Jason Starr - When Simon Burns is fired from his job without warning, he takes on the role of stay-at-home dad for his three-year-old son. But his reluctance pushes his already strained marriage to the limit. In the nestled playgrounds of the Upper West Side, Simon harbors a simmering rage at his boss's betrayal.

Things take a turn when he meets a tight-knit trio of dads at the playground. They are different from other men Simon has met, stronger and more confident, more at ease with the darker side of life- and soon Simon is lured into their mix. But after a guys' night out gets frighteningly out of hand, Simon feels himself sliding into a new nightmarish reality.

As he experiences disturbing changes in his body and his perceptions, he starts to suspect that when the guys welcomed him to their "pack," they were talking about much more than male bonding. And as he falls prey to his basest instincts, Simon must accept that werewolves exist if he is to turn the tides of his fortune...

The Spectral Blaze (Brotherhood of the Griffon Book 3) by Richard Lee Byers - Aoth and the Brotherhood of the Griffon have succeeded in rescuing Tchazzar, the lost king of Chessenta and a formidable red dragon, and are rewarded with a contract to aid in his war with a powerful dracolich. But the more Aoth sees of the war, the more suspicious he becomes that the Brotherhood may be just a pawn in a cutthroat draconic game that puts whole kingdoms at risk--a game played for stakes of gold and blood. And the more he sees the game play out, the more he realizes that he will have to become a player in this most dangerous of games if he wants the Realms to remain free.

Wicked Lies by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush - For two years, Justice Turnbull has paced his room at Halo Valley Security Hospital, planning to escape. Justice has a mission — one that began with a vicious murder two decades ago. And there are so many others who must be sent back to the hell that spawned them...

Laura Adderley didn’t plan to get pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband, though she’ll do anything to protect her baby. But now reporter Harrison Frost is asking questions about the mysterious group of women who live at Siren Song lodge. Harrison hasn’t figured out Laura’s connection to the story yet. But Justice knows. And he is coming...

All her life, Laura has been able to sense approaching evil. But that won’t stop a psychopath bent on destroying her. Justice has been unleashed, and this time, there will be no place safe to hide...

Unnatural Issue (Elemental Masters) by Mercedes Lackey - Richard Whitestone is an Elemental Earth Master. Blaming himself for the death of his beloved wife in childbirth, he has sworn never to set eyes on his daughter, Suzanne. But when he finally sees her, a dark plan takes shape in his twisted mind-to use his daughter's body to bring back the spirit of his long-dead wife.

Untold Adventures (A D&D Anthology) by John Shirley; Alan Dean Foster; Lisa Smedman; Mark Sehestedt; Mike Resnick - Your favorite award-winning, critically acclaimed, and best-selling authors unite to tell stories set in the Dungeons & Dragons world, filled with desperate dragons and cruel elves, honorable demons and fickle gods, wild magic and the sharpest of steel. You don't want to miss this rarest of opportunities to get a glimpse into the D&D adventures created by some of the most brilliant fantasy writers of our age.

Bloodforged by Nathan Long - Unable to adapt to Lahmian society, Ulrika seeks her own way, striking out to the Chaos-besieged city of Praag to seek old friends and glory in battle. On her arrival, she finds a devastated but defiant people and the invaders repelled. But the Ruinous Powers can take many forms, and now a more insidious threat is rising from within – a Slaaneshi cult that seeks to claim dominion in Praag. Shunned by her Lahmian sisters, decried by the humans she seeks to protect, Ulrika treads a lonely path as she tries to find the root of this destructive plot. Caught between the will of the vampires and the insane designs of Chaos sorcerers and cultists, Ulrika must call upon all of her cunning and savagery if she is to triumph...

Battle of the Fang by Chris Wraight - It is M32, a thousand years after the Horus Heresy. The Scouring is over and the Imperium at the height of its post-Crusade power. When Magnus the Red is tracked down to Gangava Prime, the Space Wolves hasten to engage the daemon primarch. Even as Great Wolf Harek Ironhelm closes on his ancient enemy, the Fang on the Space Wolves home world is besieged by a massive force of Thousand Sons. A desperate battle ensues as the skeleton forces of Wolf Lord Asvald Greylock attempt to hold back the attacking hosts before the last of his meagre defences gives in. Though a single Scout ship survives to summon Great Wolf Harek Ironhelm back to Fenris, none of the defenders truly realise the full scale the horror that awaits them nor what the Battle for the Fang will cost them all.

Vampire Warlords (Clockwork Vampires #3) by Andy Remic - They came from the north, and the city fell.

It is a time for warriors, a time for heroes.

Kell’s axe howls out for blood.

The conclusion to the epic Clockwork Vampire Chronicles – more blood-soaked, action-packed, vampire-laced dark fantasy.

Legendary warrior Kell must choose to flee the conquered land of Falanor, or fight for its people. Even now it may be too late, that all is lost… for the Vachine invaders have called upon their ancient rulers, semi-immortal bloodsuckers who dwell on the edges between life and death. The vampire warlords have returned, and they will feed.

File Under: [The Dark Lords Risen / A Last Stand / A Dandy Torn / Epic Confrontation]

Also Available:
Kell's Legend (Clockwork Vampires #1) by Andy Remic
Soul Stealers (Clockwork Vampires #2) by Andy Remic

Hex by Allen Steele - The danui, a reclusive arachnid species considered the galaxy's finest engineers, have avoided contact with the Coyote Federation. Until, that is, the danui initiate trade negotiations, offering only information: the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life-a massive sphere, composed of billions of hexagons.

But when the Federation's recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their new partners...

Empire of Fear: An Epic Vampire Novel by Brian Stableford - In an epic novel the Washington Post called “riveting,” Brian Stableford brilliantly imagines a world ruled by a powerful aristocracy of vampires: long-lived, extraordinarily handsome humans who are immune to pain but must drink the blood of their common subjects. The story begins in seventeenth-century London and spans three hundred years—moving from England to the heart of Africa, to Malta, and finally to the New World. Edmund Cordery, Mechanician to the court of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, believes that vampire beings must have a natural explanation. But when his discoveries make him dangerous in the eyes of his masters, Edmund entrusts his learned secrets to his son, Noell, who in turn becomes a fugitive. When he returns to Europe he faces the awesome might of Coeur-de-Lion and the infamous Vlad the Impaler.

Alien Invasion: The Ultimate Survival Guide for the Ultimate Attack by Travis S. Taylor and Bob Boan [Non-Fiction] - What if there really are aliens and they do attack? Read what two scientists reveal in this “how-to” survival manual for the space age. Alien invasion. Unlikely? As unlikely as Pearl Harbor? The extinction of the dinosaurs? A meteor strike that levels whole forests in Siberia? You get the drift. Some events produce such a massive setback to life, the Earth and to humanity that we must understand and prepare for them, even if the chances are low that they’ll come about. In fact, it will be criminal and abrogation of our duty to future generations if we do not get ready! But where to begin? Drs. Travis S. Taylor and Bob Boan have the answers. Both are experienced scientists, physicists with expertise in both defense and military signal intelligence and experience working with both the Department of Defense and NASA. These are intellectual heavyweights who have a clear idea of the possibilities of alien contact, the calculations of whether or not that contact will be friendly…and what to do if it’s not.An amazing journey through what we do – and do not – know about how to defend ourselves from space. Sure, that day may never come in our lifetimes – but everyone should have a copy of this lying around JUST IN CASE. Heck, better yet, why not commit a few of these scientists solutions to memory! Just in case.

Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein - A Robert A. Heinlein classic reissued with an all new celebrity forward by noted Heinlein biographer Bill Patterson and afterword penned by three-time award-winner for fan writing and science fiction scholar John Hertz.

It’s a cross-time fight for freedom as a family retreats to a bomb shelter during a nuclear attack – only to emerge hundreds of years in the future, thrown forward in time by the blasts. There lifeboat ethics rule as they struggle to survive…until they’re discovered by up-time humans, the survivors of the apocalypse. These survivors are of African descent. Down-time humans – in fact, all of the European-descended – are held guilty for the state into which the world has fallen and designated as automatic slaves. The only escape is to find a way back down-time, to change events sufficiently to make absolute certain this nightmare future never get a chance to happen in the first place!

Shadow Walker by Allyson James - Stormwalker Janet Begay returns home only to have the ground collapse beneath her-literally. After tumbling two hundred feet underground, Janet is rescued by her dragon boyfriend, Mick. But something dark touches Mick while in the sinkhole, and Janet might lose him forever unless she recruites the most unlikely of allies to stop the growing shadow.

Nightfall by Ellen Connor - Growing up with an unstable, often absent father who preached about the end of the world, Jenna never thought in her wildest nightmares that his predictions would come true. Or that he would have a plan in place to save her-one that includes the strong, stoic man who kidnaps and takes her to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest.

The mysterious ex-Marine named Mason owes a life-debt to Jenna's father. Skilled and steadfast, he's ready for the prophesied Change, but Jenna proves tough to convince. Until the power grid collapses and mutant dogs attack-vicious things that reek of nature gone wrong.

When five strangers appear, desperate to escape the bloodthirsty packs, Jenna defies her protector and rescues them. As technology fails and the old world falls away, Jenna changes too, forever altered by supernatural forces. To fight for their future, she and Mason must learn to trust their instinctive passion-a flame that will see them through the bitter winter, the endless nights, and the violence of a new Dark Age.

Review: The Damned Busters by Matthew Hughes

2011-05-28T13:17:00.000-04:00

REVIEW

The Damned Busters: To Hell & Back Book 1 by Matthew Hughes
ISBN: 9780857661036 | Cover Price $7.99 | 416 pp.

Buy It Here!

Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10 | Well worth the price.

Overview: Chesney Anstruther accidentally summons a demon one night while building a poker table. The demon shows up with a contract for his soul but Chesney refuses to sell... causing a cascade of problems which result in Hell going on strike.

With Hell on strike, the temptation to sin is on hold, and that turns out to be a bad thing. Without passion, without pride, without greed, without drive, the world becomes a gray and forlorn place where virtually nothing gets done.

When Satan himself shows up to negotiate with Chesney in order to restore order, there's only one thing for it - to make a deal.

Review: The Damned Busters is a multi-layered novel. On the surface, it is a light-hearted contemporary fantasy romp that pays homage to the superhero genre of comic books. Witty, situationally comical, and precisely executed. Hughes' characters shine, mixing genre tropes with individual quirks and style.

On that level alone, The Damed Busters is a great read. Not overly long or excessively intricate, this is a fast-paced, enjoyable read.

Below the surface, The Damned Busters is a satire of both contemporary angel/demon fantasy and the superhero genres and pokes gentle fun at some of the tropes of the genres. Chesney, through his eventual deal with the Devil, winds up with super-powers but, in contrast to the norms portrayed in the comic genre, Chesney has considerable difficulty controlling those powers - and expected hilarity ensues. His heroic persona encounters two women who lure him with their very different attractions - and again, in homage to the form, both are named with double initials. Poppy Paxton, the beautiful and sophisticated daughter of his boss, insurance magnate W. T. Paxton, and Melda McCann, a streetwise young woman with a history of poor judgement in boyfriends.

The demons and angels, far from being the seductive, misunderstood heroes of the paranormal romance tale, are packing an agenda. Hell's minions are conniving, manipulative, and strongly reminiscent of union bosses. Heaven's angels are utterly unable to think for themselves, entirely lacking in free will.

The Damned Busters also challenges our ideas about sin. Though perhaps not intentionally, the novel raises some valid theological arguments. What, if not sin, makes the world go round? Without greed, would businesses stop innovating, stop developing, stop performing? Without pride, would we do our best work? Without envy, would we try as hard? Without gluttony, would we enjoy our food, would restaurants exist? Without lust, would love wither, would the fashion industry crash?

Conclusion: If you feel like a light, enjoyable read, grab The Damned Busters for its fun, its comedy, its adventure and its action. If you want something deeper, ponder the points it raises and notice the homage it pays to the various genres it satirizes. I'm looking forward to Book 2 - Hughes is a top-notch author who has crafted a satisfying first novel for this new series.

A note about the publisher: Angry Robot is a relatively new publisher. Originally created by HarperCollins in 2008, Angry Robot was sold to UK publisher Osprey Publishing in Sept. 2010. Headed by former Black Library/Solaris editor Marc Gascoigne, Angry Robot is publishing an impressive amount of top-notch Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novels each month - and doing it on both sides of the ocean. Their standard format in the US is mass market paperbacks priced at the more-than-reasonable $7.99 price-point. In addition to a great selection of novels, I commend Angry Robot for their approach to the business - marketing their books worldwide and multi-formatted (ebook, paperback) everywhere. Additionally, they even manage to poke subtle fun at their own industry - stating on their website that they publish SF, F & WTF - and noting on that back of each title - where publisher's typically note a single genre wherein the book should be filed - a series of possible subject headings for each novel. The Damned Busters back cover indicates that it should be filed under Fantasy with a bullet list of other possibilities: [Expletives, Deleted], [Up, Up and Away], [Endless Loveliness], and [Life's Great Author]. It's these little touches, combined with excellent novels, great cover design, excellent prices, and a dedication to the genre that put Angry Robot on our preferred list. As a science fiction/fantasy bookstore, Kayleighbug Books will be stocking ALL Angry Robot titles from here on out. As a reader and reviewer, you can count on my reviewing at least one Angry Robot book each month.

05/24/11 - New Releases in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal & more..

2011-05-24T12:58:00.000-04:00

Welcome To Bordertown

edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner

Bordertown: a city on the border between our human world and the elfin realm. Runaway teens come from both sides of the border to find adventure, to find themselves. Elves play in rock bands and race down the street on spell-powered motorbikes. Human kids recreate themselves in the squats and clubs and artists' studios of Soho.

Terri Windling's original Bordertown series was the forerunner of today's urban fantasy, introducing authors that included Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and Ellen Kushner.

In this volume of all-new work (including a 15-page graphic story), the original writers are now joined by the generation that grew up dreaming of Bordertown, including acclaimed authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, and many more. They all meet here on the streets of Bordertown in more than twenty new interconnected songs, poems, and stories.

[[Fans of the Bordertown series will want to take a look at our offering of the original Uncorrected Proofs of The Essential Bordertown]]

Frankenstein: The Dead Town by Dean R. Koontz - The war against humanity is raging. As the small town of Rainbow Falls, Montana, comes under siege, scattered survivors band together to weather the onslaught of the creatures set loose upon the world. As they ready for battle against overwhelming odds, they will learn the full scope of Victor Frankenstein's nihilistic plan to remake the future - and the terrifying reach of his shadowy, powerful supporters.

Now the good will make their last, best stand. In a climax that will shatter every expectation, their destinies and the fate of humanity hang in the balance.

The War That Came Early: West and East by Harry Turtledove - What if British prime minister Neville Chamberlain had defied Hitler? What if the Munich Accord had gone unsigned, and Nazi Germany had launched its bid for conquest sooner? How would World War II have unfolded--and with what consequences? Dean of alternate history Harry Turtledove has the stunning answers in his breathtaking sequel to "Hitler's War." In the wake of Hitler's bold invasion of Czechoslovakia, nations turn against nations, old enemies form new alliances, and ordinary men and women confront extraordinary life-and-death situations. An American marine falls in love with a Russian dancer in Japanese-held Singapore, as Chinese guerilla resistance erupts. A sniper on the frontlines of France finds a powerful new way to ply his deadly art--while a German assassin hunts him. In the icy North Atlantic, as a U-boat with a secret weapon wreaks havoc on British ships, occupying Nazi forces target Denmark. And in Germany, a stranded American woman encounters Hitler himself, as a Jewish family faces the rising tide of hatred. From Siberia to Spain, armies clash, sides are chosen, new weapons raise the deadly ante, and new strategies seek to break a growing stalemate. But one question hangs over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King - This 384-page hardcover collects four novellas about revenge and other traits that most of us strive hard to keep tightly locked. In "Big Driver," a vicious attack on the way home from a book club fest leaves a cozy writer with an insatiable thirst for blood. In another story, Darcy Anderson's "good marriage" loudly collapses with a startling late night discovery in the garage. Another novella charts Dave Streeter's devil deal cancer reprieve, while "1922" rekindles the sudden onslaught of Midwest murder and madness.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon by Peter David - All humankind was watching that fateful day in 1969. But only a handful knew the real mission behind America’s triumph in space. Now the treacherous Decepticons have set their sights on unearthing government secrets. The only hope of averting a crisis rests on the Autobots—yet who knows what remains in the shadows, hidden from man and machine?

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Conviction by Aaron Allston - Chief of State Natasi Daala has been overthrown, and the Jedi Order has taken control of the Galactic Alliance. But while the new governors dismantle Daala’s draconian regime, forces still loyal to the deposed official are mobilizing a counterstrike. And even the Jedi’s new authority may not be enough to save Tahiri Veila, the former Jedi Knight and onetime Sith apprentice convicted of treason for the killing of Galactic Alliance officer Gilad Pellaeon.

Meanwhile, Luke and Ben Skywalker are relentlessly pursuing Abeloth, the powerful dark-side entity bent on ruling the galaxy. But as they corner their monstrous quarry on the planet Nam Chorios, the two lone Jedi must also face the fury of the Sith death squadron bearing down on them. And when Abeloth turns the tables with an insidious ambush, the Skywalkers’ quest threatens to become a suicide mission.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams - From across the galaxy they’ve come: agents of both the Republic and the Sith Empire, an investigating Jedi Padawan, an ex-trooper drummed out of the Republic’s elite Blackstar Squad, and a mysterious Mandalorian. An extraordinary auction has drawn them all together—in quest of a prize only one can claim. Each is prepared to do what he must to possess the treasure, whose value may be the wealth of a world itself. None intend to leave empty-handed. All have secrets, desires, and schemes. And nothing could ever unite them as allies—except the truth about the deadly danger of the object they covet. But can Sith and Jedi, Republic and Empire—enemies for millennia—join as one against the certain doom of the galaxy?

Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charon Newton - Beneath a dying red sun sits the proud and ancient city of Villjamur, capital of a mighty empire where humans coexist with the birdlike garda race, the reptilian rumel who can live for hundreds of years, and the eerie banshees whose forlorn cries herald death. But now all life is threatened by an encroaching ice age. Throngs of refugees gather outside the city gates, while within, tragedy forces the Emperor’s elder daughter, Jamur Rika, to assume the throne. Joined by her younger sister, Jamur Eir, the new queen takes pity on the common people—and takes counsel from dashing teacher Randur Estevu, who is not what he seems. Meanwhile, a grisly murder draws rumel investigator Rumex Jeryd into a web of corruption—and an obscene conspiracy that imperils the lives of Rika and Eir and the future of Villjamur itself. But far north, where the drawn-out winter has already begun, an even greater danger appears, against which all the empire’s military and magical power may be useless—a threat from another world.

Dragon Soul by Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett - Thanks to its elite Dragon Corps, the capital city of Volstov has all but won the hundred years’ war with its neighboring enemy, the Ke-Han. The renegade airmen who fly the corps’s mechanical, magic-fueled dragons are Volstov’s greatest weapon. But now one of its more unruly members is at the center of the city’s rumor mill, causing a distraction that may turn the tide of victory.

With Volstov immersed in a scandal that may have international repercussions, the Ke-Han devise an ingenious plan of attack. To counter the threat, four ill-assorted heroes must converge to save the kingdom they love: an exiled magician, a naive country boy, a young student—and the unpredictable ace airman who flies the city’s fiercest dragon, Havemercy.

But on the eve of battle, these courageous men will face something that could make the most formidable of warriors hesitate, the most powerful of magicians weak, and the most unlikely of men allies in their quest to rise against it....

Filled with adventure and discovery, treachery and betrayal, Havemercy is a thrill ride to the unexpected—and an unforgettable journey that will linger long after the fire of battle has cleared.

Zombies Sold Separately by Cheyenne McCray - Nyx hates Zombies. Seriously. Hates. Zombies. Ever since she was a youngling, she’s been haunted by them. And even though she’s a big girl now—a half-human, half-Drow private eye, to be precise—Nyx bristles at the mere thought of the walking dead.

Meanwhile, the corpses of humans and paranorms alike are turning up all over New York City. Now it’s up to Nyx to find out who—or what—is behind this series of horrific attacks. But it’s only a matter of time before Nyx is drawn deeper into her darkest fears…and her worst nightmare about meeting a real, flesh-and-blood-hungry, body-snatching Zombie comes blindingly to life. Or death…

Lady Lazurus by Michele Lang - With the romance of Twilight, the suspense of The Dresden Files, and the delicious thrills of True Blood, the enthralling saga of Magdalena Lazarus unfolds. Descended from the legendary witch of Ein Dor, she alone holds the power to summon the angel Raziel and stop Hitler and his supernatural minions from unleashing total war in Europe. The Nazis have fighters more fearsome than soldiers, weapons more terrifying than missiles, and allies that even they are afraid of SS werewolves; the demon Asmodel who possesses a willing Adolf Hitler, and other supernatural creatures all are literally hell-bent on preventing Magda from possessing the Book of Raziel, a magical text with the power to turn the tide against Hitler’s vast war machine.

Magda, young and rebellious, grew up in the cosmopolitan city of Budapest, unaware of her family’s heritage. When her mother dies, Magda—ready or not—is the Lazarus, who must face the evil that holds Europe in an iron grip. Unready to assume the mantle of her ancient birthright, but knowing that she must fight, she sets out across Europe searching for the Book. Magda is desperate enough to endanger her soul by summoning the avenging angel Raziel. When she sees him in the glory of his celestial presence, her heart is utterly, completely lost…

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman - It is 1888; Dracula has married Queen Victoria and turned a large percentage of the population into the undead.

Following vampire Geneviève Dieudonné and explorer Charles Beauregard on the trail of the Ripper murders, this panoramic novel of altered history brilliantly reinvents the world of late Victorian melodrama.

Familiar and sinister figures from literature and history emerge from the fog, along with some shocking truths.

Supernatural: One Year Gone by Rebecca Dessertine - Dean believes that Sam is in Hell so he is trying to keep his promise to his brother and live a normal live with Lisa and Ben.

When he realizes that a spell in the Necronomicon could raise Lucifer and therefore Sam, he convinces his new family to travel with him on vacation to Salem.

Meanwhile Sam is not as far away as Dean thinks and is determined to protect his brother from the Salem witches...

A Supernatural novel that reveals the untold events of the missing year between seasons 5 and 6!

Nebula Awards Showcase 2011 edited by Kevin J. Anderson - With this inaugural volume at Tor, the annual Nebula Award collection is reborn as a fiction-only anthology. This collection of nominees for 2010’s Nebula Awards includes all of the prior year’s most celebrated stories, and will be published in time for the 2011 Nebula Awards in May, 2011.

2009’s award winners, announced in May 2010, include Kage Baker’s novella “The Women of Nell Gwynne’s,” Eugie Foster’s novelette “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast,” Kij Johnson’s short story “Spar,” plus Paolo Bacigalupi’s novelette, “The Gambler.”

Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont - The return of the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard, could not have come at a worse time for a Malazan Empire exhausted by warfare and weakened by betrayals and rivalries. Indeed, there are those who wonder whether the Empress Laseen might not be losing her grip on power as she faces increasing unrest as conquered kingdoms and principalities sense freedom once more.

Into the seething cauldron of Quon Tali—the Empire's heartland—marches the Guard. With their return comes the memory of the Empire—and yet all is not well with the Guard itself. Elements within its elite, the Avowed, have set their sights on far greater power. There are ancient entities who also seek to further their own arcane ends. And what of the swordsman called Traveller who, with his companion Ereko, has gone in search of a confrontation from which none have ever returned?

As the Guard prepares to wage war, so Laseen's own generals and mages, the 'Old Hands', grow impatient at what they see as her mismanagement of the Empire. But could Laseen have outwitted them all? Could she be using the uprisings to draw out and finally eliminate these last irksome survivors from the days of her illustrious predecesor, Kellanved?

Betrayer of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner - Fleeing the supernova chain reaction at the galactic core, the cowardly Puppeteers of the Fleet of Worlds have—-just barely—-survived. They’ve stumbled from one crisis to the next: The rebellion of their human slaves. The relentless questing of the species of Known Space. The spectacular rise of the starfish-like Gw’oth. The onslaught of the genocidal Pak.

Catastrophe looms again as past crises return—-and converge. Who can possibly save the Fleet of Worlds from its greatest peril yet?

Louis Wu? Trapped in the Wunderland civil war, all he wants is to go home—-but the only possible escape will plunge him into unknowable danger.

Ol’t’ro? The Gw’oth ensemble mind fled across the stars to establish a colony world free from tyranny. But some problems cannot be left behind, and other problems—-like the Fleet of Worlds itself—-are racing straight at them.

Achilles? Despite past disgrace, the charismatic Puppeteer politician knows he is destined for greatness. He will do anything to seize power—-and to take his revenge on everyone who ever stood in his way.
Nessus? The insane Puppeteer scout is out of ideas, out of resources, with only desperation left to guide him.
Their hopes and fears, dreams and ambitions are about to collide. And the winner takes . . . worlds.

Warriors 2 edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois - “People have been telling stories about warriors for as long as they have been telling stories. Since Homer first sang the wrath of Achilles and the ancient Sumerians set down their tales of Gilgamesh, warriors, soldiers, and fighters have fascinated us; they are a part of every culture, every literary tradition, every genre. All Quiet on the Western Front, From Here to Eternity, and The Red Badge of Courage have become part of our literary canon, taught in classrooms all around the country and the world. Our contributors make up an all-star lineup of award-winning and bestselling writers, representing a dozen different publishers and as many genres. We asked each of them for the same thing—a story about a warrior. Some chose to write in the genre they’re best known for. Some decided to try something different. You will find warriors of every shape, size, and color in these pages, warriors from every epoch of human history, from yesterday and today and tomorrow, and from worlds that never were. Some of the stories will make you sad, some will make you laugh, and many will keep you on the edge of your seat.”

The stories in the second mass market volume of this book are:

Introduction: Stories of the Spinner Rack, by George R. R. Martin;
Seven Years from Home, by Naomi Novik;
Dirae, by Peter S. Beagle;
Ancient Ways, by S. M. Stirling;
The Scroll, by David Ball;
Recidivist, by Gardner Dozois;
Ninieslando, by Howard Waldrop;
Out of the Dark, by David Weber

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

The Omega Point by Whitley Strieber - 2012 came and went. The world prepared itself for impending disaster—and nothing happened. Or so it seemed.

But by 2020, energy from a supernova is disrupting the sun. Solar storms ravage the globe with unprecedented ferocity, and debris in the form of comets and asteroids threaten to end life on earth. The wealthy of the world hide in vast underground bunkers, but even they know that they cannot survive without a miracle.

It all comes down to one man—a young psychiatrist named David Ford—who may hold the power to save the world. Newly employed at the extravagant Acton Clinic, Ford encounters people who seem to understand what's happening… some may even possess an extraordinary knowledge of what’s to come. One of them is the beautiful and enigmatic Caroline Light, who demands more from Ford than he could possibly give… another is cunning ex-CIA operative Mack Graham, a skilled killer with questionable loyalties…

December 21, 2012 was not the end.

The end is The Omega Point: where time stops.

Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton - This page-turning debut novel will entice fans who like their paranormal romances dark and disturbing. It's a natural next-read for fans of Stephanie Meyer, Carrie Jones, and Becca Fitzpatrick. But instead of mythical creatures, blood magic has everything to do with primal human desires like power, wealth, and immortality.

Everywhere Silla Kennicott turns she sees blood. She can't stop thinking about her parents alleged murder-suicide. She is consumed by a book filled with spells that arrives mysteriously in the mail. The spells share one common ingredient: blood, and Silla is more than willing to cast a few. What's a little spilled blood if she can uncover the truth? And then there's Nick—the new guy at school who makes her pulse race. He has a few secrets of his own and is all too familiar with the lure of blood magic. Drawn together by a combination of fate and chemistry, Silla and Nick must find out who else in their small Missouri town knows their secret and will do anything to take the book and magic from Silla.

Angel Burn by L. A. Weatherly - Willow knows she’s different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people’s dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces, and that he’s one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil. In the first book in an action-packed, romantic trilogy, L..A. Weatherly sends readers on a thrill-ride of a road trip - and depicts the human race at the brink of a future as catastrophic as it is deceptively beautiful.

They’re out for your soul . . . and they don’t have heaven in mind.